Why it works: Onion and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,646 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓
Bavarian Steak
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
Place the flank steak in a roasting pan.
Season and roast
Sprinkle with coarse sea salt.
Cover with onion slices, lemon juice, and catsup.
Roast slowly for 1½ hours.
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.
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Onion + lemontop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,646 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Flank steak
- Forms the main protein, which turns tender with slow, moist cooking.
- Onions
- Add moisture and sweetness as they soften and cook down over the steak.
- Lemon
- Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances the sweetness of the catsup.
- Catsup
- Adds sweetness, acidity, and browning from its sugars during roasting.
The step that matters
Roast slowly at low heat. Flank steak is lean, so it can dry out if cooked too hot or too long. Low, slow heat softens connective tissue gradually while the meat stays moist.
“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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