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Spanish Beefsteak

A baked round steak topped with onions, tomatoes, and grated cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,633 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Spanish Beefsteak

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Place the steak in a pie dish and add a little water to baste it.

Bake and top

  1. Bake for 30 minutes.

  2. Remove the steak and cover it with sliced onions.

  3. Bake until the onions are tender.

  4. Cover with sliced tomatoes and bake for an additional 20 minutes.

  5. Sprinkle grated cheese on top and return to the oven until melted.

  6. Baste the steak every 10 minutes during baking.

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. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + cheesetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,896 recipes

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

  3. Onion + cheesetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,849 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Round steak
Forms the main body of the dish and becomes tender with slow oven baking.
Sliced onions
Soften during baking and add sweetness and savory depth to the topping.
Sliced tomatoes
Add moisture and acidity that brighten the rich beef.
Grated cheese
Melts over the top to add richness and a savory, golden finish.

The step that matters

Basting the steak every 10 minutes. Water on the steak keeps its surface moist during long oven baking, so it does not dry out and toughen before the vegetables and cheese are added.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, cheese):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Eggplantfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, cheese. 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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