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Beefsteak a LA Greque

A beefsteak cooked with onions, Marsala wine, espagnole sauce, stewed tomatoes, and served with fried eggplant.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and eggplant work together. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 651 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Beefsteak a LA Greque

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Lightly fry the beefsteaks with onions.

  2. Add the Marsala wine, espagnole sauce, and stewed tomatoes.

  3. Simmer for one hour.

  4. Serve with fried eggplant.

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. Tomato + eggplanttop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together651 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  3. Onion + eggplanttop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together870 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Wine + tomatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,759 recipes

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

  5. Sauce + tomatotop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,469 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Beefsteaks
Form the main body of the dish, becoming tender during the long simmer.
Onions
Browning in the initial frying adds sweetness and savory depth to the sauce.
Marsala wine
Adds acidity and aromatic depth as it reduces into the sauce.
Espagnole sauce
Contributes body and rich savory flavor to the braising liquid.
Stewed tomatoes
Add moisture, acidity, and a fresh, tangy flavor to the sauce.

The step that matters

Simmer for one hour. A gentle, steady simmer slowly breaks down connective tissue in the beef, making it tender. Boiling hard can toughen the meat and reduce the sauce too quickly, so keep the heat low and the liquid barely bubbling.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Okrafits better
  3. Cucumberfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against wine, sauce, tomato, eggplant. 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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