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Beefsteak with Onions

A sirloin steak cooked in butter, topped with sautéed onions seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beefsteak with Onions

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the steak

  1. Fry the sirloin cut of beef in butter until cooked.

  2. Cover the cooked steak on a platter until needed.

Prepare the onions

  1. Slice the onions thinly.

  2. Fry the sliced onions in the gravy from the steak.

  3. Season the onions with salt and pepper.

Serve

  1. Pour the seasoned onions over the steak.

  2. Serve immediately.

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. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  2. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Sirloin cut of beef
Forms the main body of the dish and provides the meaty flavour once browned.
Butter
Fat for frying that helps the beef brown and adds richness.
Onions
Soften and turn sweet when fried, adding flavour and moisture to the dish.

The step that matters

Fry the sirloin cut of beef in butter until cooked. Cooking the steak over sufficient heat lets its surface brown through the Maillard reaction, which builds savoury flavour. Overcooking toughens the meat, so stopping at the right point matters.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Potatofits about as well
  2. Onionthe original
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Tomatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, 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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