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Swiss Steak

A braised beef steak with onions, tomatoes, and gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Swiss Steak

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the steak

  1. Pound flour into the steak until well coated.

  2. Brown both sides of the steak in a skillet with lard and butter.

Simmer

  1. Add sliced onions, sliced tomato, and canned tomatoes on top of the steak.

  2. Pour in enough water to fill the skillet.

  3. Cover and let simmer slowly for 2 hours.

  4. One hour before done, sprinkle with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  5. Add more water to the gravy if needed.

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 + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Thick round steak
Tough cut that becomes tender through long, slow, moist cooking.
Flour
Coats the steak so it browns well and helps thicken the gravy.
Lard and butter
Fat for browning the steak and adding rich flavor.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma as they soften into the gravy.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and moisture that build the sauce.

The step that matters

Simmer slowly with the lid on. Low, covered simmering breaks down the tough connective tissue in round steak. Boiling hard or letting the liquid evaporate can leave the meat tough and dry, so the gravy needs enough water.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Okrafits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, onion, 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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