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Beefsteak Fried

Beefsteak fried in butter, topped with a port wine and onion gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beefsteak Fried

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the steaks

  1. Fry the steaks in butter for 12 to 15 minutes until browned.

  2. Place the cooked steaks in a hot dish before the fire.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. In the pan, add port wine, pepper, salt, and minced onion to the gravy.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil, then pour it over the steaks.

  3. Serve very hot.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Butter + port winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,499 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Port wine + oniontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,148 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Port wine + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,804 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Steaks
Provide the main protein, which browns on the outside while staying tender inside.
Butter
Conducts heat for frying and adds richness and browning to the steak surface.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and acidity to the pan juices, forming the base of the gravy.
Minced onion
Adds aroma and savory flavor to the gravy as it cooks.

The step that matters

Fry the steaks in butter until browned. Browning comes from the Maillard reaction, which needs a hot, dry surface. Crowding the pan or letting the steaks steam leaves them grey and less flavourful.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, port wine, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, port wine, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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