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Steak with Dressing

A steak rolled with bread crumbs and butter, baked or steamed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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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 ↓

Steak with Dressing

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. Season the bread crumbs with salt, pepper, and melted butter.

  3. Spread the dressing on the beef, roll it up tightly, and tie it carefully.

  4. Wrap the beef in a buttered cloth.

Cook and serve

  1. Steam for 2 hours and 15 minutes.

  2. Alternatively, bake with a little butter and water, basting occasionally.

  3. Avoid over-browning; cover with a tin pan if the oven is too hot.

  4. Serve sliced cold if desired.

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. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  3. Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

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

  5. Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef from the round
Forms the main body of the dish and becomes tender with long, moist cooking.
Bread crumbs
Make up the dressing that fills the rolled beef, adding bulk and absorbing juices.
Melted butter
Adds fat and richness to the seasoned dressing and keeps the crumbs moist.

The step that matters

Avoid over-browning. Long cooking at high oven heat can dry and darken the surface before the centre is tender. Covering the beef with a tin pan slows browning and keeps moisture in.

“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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