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Swiss Steak

A slow‑cooked steak simmered in hot water and seasoned with flour, salt, pepper, and beef fat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Swiss Steak

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the steak

  1. Sprinkle the steak thickly with flour on both sides.

  2. Pound the flour into the steak using the edge of a plate until fully absorbed.

  3. Repeat the flouring and pounding until the steak can hold no more flour.

Sear and braise

  1. Heat a skillet until smoking hot and add beef fat.

  2. Place the steak in the pan and sear both sides.

  3. Pour hot water over the steak until nearly covered.

  4. Cook slowly for 1 to 3 hours, depending on the thickness of the steak.

Serve

  1. Season and serve on a hot platter with gravy over the meat.

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 + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  2. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + beeftop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and beef barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,677 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Round steak
Lean, tough cut that becomes tender through long, slow, moist cooking.
Flour
Coats the surface to brown during searing and thickens the gravy.
Beef fat
Conducts heat for searing and adds rich, browned meaty flavor.
Hot water
Provides the moist cooking liquid that becomes the base of the gravy.

The step that matters

Cook slowly over low heat. Collagen in the tough connective tissue of round steak breaks down slowly at low temperatures, making the meat tender. Rapid boiling or high heat tightens the muscle fibers and leaves the meat chewy.

“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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