Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓
Spanish Beefsteak
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the steak
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Stick a few cloves into the top of the steak.
Sprinkle the steak with coarse sea salt, black pepper, and flour.
Place the steak in a pan.
Braise
Pour enough boiling water into the pan to baste the steak occasionally.
Cook for about 1 hour.
Slice the onion.
Place the sliced onion on top of the steak, seasoning and basting as needed.
When the onions are tender, pour the can of tomatoes over the steak.
Discard some of the tomato liquid.
Finish and serve
Layer thin slices of cheese on top of the meat.
Return the steak to the oven until the cheese melts.
Remove the steak to a platter.
Thicken the pan juices with flour to make gravy.
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.
-
Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together17,451 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
-
Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,923 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,633 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Clove + tomatotop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,474 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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 during long, slow cooking.
- Flour
- Coats the surface and thickens the pan juices into a gravy.
- Tomatoes
- Add acidity and liquid that flavour the sauce during braising.
- Onion
- Softens and sweetens as it cooks, adding flavour to the sauce.
- Cheese
- Melts over the meat to add richness and a savoury, creamy layer.
The step that matters
Cook the steak with enough liquid. Thick round steak is tough and dries out easily. Basting with boiling water keeps the surface moist, and the long, gentle cooking breaks down connective tissue so the meat becomes tender rather than chewy.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clove, pepper, flour, tomato, cheese):
- Capsicumfits better
- Eggplantfits better
- Carrotfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against clove, pepper, flour, 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.
You might also like
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Cream of Tomato Soup107 recipes
Macaroni and Cheese102 recipes
Tomato Bisque61 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.