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Virginia Steak

A stew of round steak pieces and onions, browned then boiled until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 32,460 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Virginia Steak

one piece per person

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the round steak into pieces to serve one per person.

  2. Dip the steak pieces in flour.

Brown

  1. Fry the floured steak in hot fat until browned, along with the sliced onion.

  2. Remove the onions when they are slightly browned.

Simmer

  1. Add enough boiling water to cover the steak and onions.

  2. Boil for about two hours until tender, ensuring not to use too much water.

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 + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 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

Round steak
Main protein; long moist cooking breaks down its connective tissue so it becomes tender.
Flour
Coating that browns during frying and helps thicken the cooking liquid.
Onion
Browning adds sweetness and savoury aroma to the cooking liquid.
Hot water
Moist cooking liquid that gently braises the steak and onions as they simmer.

The step that matters

Boil for about two hours with only enough water. Round steak is lean and tough, so a long, gentle simmer is needed to soften its connective tissue. Using too much water dilutes the flavour and weakens the browned crust, so use just enough to cover.

“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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