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Beefsteak Smothered in Onions

A steak layered with onions, seasoned, and simmered in boiling water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Beefsteak Smothered in Onions

Ingredients

Directions

Fry the onions

  1. Fry the bacon in a skillet until brown, then remove it.

  2. In the same skillet, add the sliced onions and fry for about 10 minutes, stirring constantly.

  3. Remove all but a thin layer of onions from the skillet.

Layer and simmer

  1. Place the slice of steak on top of the onions.

  2. Add a layer of onions.

  3. Place another slice of steak.

  4. Cover thickly with onions.

  5. Dredge each layer with pepper, salt, and flour.

  6. Pour the boiling water over the layers, cover tightly, and simmer for 30 minutes.

Serve

  1. When serving, place the steak in the center of the dish and heap the onions around it.

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. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  2. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 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. Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Onions
Soften and sweeten as they cook, and release moisture that forms the sauce around the steak.
Beef steak
Provides the meat, which becomes tender during the covered, slow simmer.
Flour
Dredging coats the layers and thickens the cooking liquid into a gravy.
Boiling water
Creates the moist braising liquid that cooks the steak and onions together.

The step that matters

Cover tightly and simmer. The trapped steam and liquid braise the steak gently, which tenderises the meat. Lifting the lid lets moisture escape, so the steak can dry out and toughen.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, flour. 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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