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Beefsteak Scalloped

A baked dish of layered chopped beef, breadcrumbs, butter, egg mixture, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Beefsteak Scalloped

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. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Grease a tin with butter.

Layer and pour

  1. Layer the chopped steak in the tin.

  2. Layer breadcrumbs over the steak.

  3. Add bits of butter, pepper, and salt.

  4. Add more chopped steak.

  5. Add breadcrumbs.

  6. Add pepper.

  7. Add salt.

  8. Beat the egg in a bowl, then mix in the milk and the water.

  9. Pour the egg mixture carefully over the layers in the tin.

  10. Dot the top with more butter.

Bake and serve

  1. Cover the dish.

  2. Bake for 30 to 45 minutes until steamed through.

  3. Remove the cover.

  4. Brown the top before serving.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Raw steak
Forms the meat layers that cook through in the custard, giving the dish its body and savoury flavour.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the egg and milk mixture and hold the layers together as they set.
Egg
Binds the liquid and sets as it bakes, helping the dish hold its shape.
Milk
Adds moisture and softens the crumbs, keeping the layers tender as they cook.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the top brown when uncovered.

The step that matters

Cover, then uncover to brown. Covering traps steam so the steak and custard cook through gently. Removing the cover late lets the surface dry and brown; uncovering too early can dry the dish before the centre is set.

“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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