Name: Beef Smothered in Tomato
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon butter; 1 onion, finely chopped; 1 pint tomatoes, cooked and strained; 1 teaspoon salt; a little pepper; 1 pound beef, cooked or uncooked, cut into small pieces

Why it works: Onion and beef 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 ↓

Beef Smothered in Tomato

Ingredients

1 tablespoon butter
1 onion, finely chopped
1 pint tomatoes, cooked and strained
1 teaspoon salt
a little pepper
1 pound beef, cooked or uncooked, cut into small pieces

Directions

Make the sauce

In a stew-pan, melt the butter over low heat.
Add the chopped onion and fry slowly until softened.
Stir in the strained tomatoes, salt, and pepper.

Simmer the beef

Add the beef pieces and simmer very slowly until the meat is tender.

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.

Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,092 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + beeftop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,448 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,633 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 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

Butter: Adds richness and carries flavour as the onion softens in the pan.
Onion: Softens and sweetens as it fries slowly, building the base flavour of the sauce.
Tomatoes: Form the body of the sauce and add acidity and fruity flavour.
Beef: Provides the main protein, becoming tender through slow, gentle simmering in the sauce.

The step that matters

Simmer the beef very slowly. Tough muscle fibres break down into tender meat only with long, gentle heat. Rapid boiling toughens the meat and can reduce the sauce too quickly, so keep the simmer very low.

Swap the tomato

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

Potatofits better
Chivefits about as well
Capsicumfits about as well
Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, onion, pepper, beef. 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.

Tomato Soup526 recipes

Roast Beef211 recipes

Beef Loaf175 recipes

Cream of Tomato Soup107 recipes

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Beef Smothered in Tomato