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Sulzbecher Steak

A seasoned Hamburg steak baked with onion, tomato, catsup, Worcestershire sauce, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and tomato 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 ↓

Sulzbecher Steak

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Season the Hamburg steak with coarse sea salt and black pepper, then place it in a dripping pan.

  2. Chop the onion and tomato, then mix them with the catsup and Worcestershire sauce.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture over the meat and add small lumps of butter on top.

  2. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 1 hour.

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 + tomatotop 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. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Hamburg steak
Forms the base of the dish and provides the meat flavour and body.
Onion
Adds aroma and savoury sweetness as it softens in the juices during baking.
Tomato
Adds acidity and moisture that blend into a sauce over the meat.
Catsup
Adds sweetness, acidity and body to the sauce.
Worcestershire sauce
Adds savoury depth and tang to the sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that helps flavour and moisten the meat as it melts.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Okrafits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, tomato, sauce, butter. 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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