Name: Beefsteak in Baking Pan
Ingredients: 2 pounds beefsteak, cut into walnut-sized pieces and ½ inch thick; 2 pounds potatoes, peeled and sliced ¼ inch thick; 2 medium onions, sliced; 2 teaspoons salt; 1 teaspoon pepper; ¾ pint water

Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beefsteak in Baking Pan

Ingredients

2 pounds beefsteak, cut into walnut-sized pieces and ½ inch thick
2 pounds potatoes, peeled and sliced ¼ inch thick
2 medium onions, sliced
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper
¾ pint water

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

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Layer and bake

Layer five or six slices of potatoes in the bottom of a baking pan and season with salt and pepper.
Add a layer of beef pieces and season again.
Layer potatoes, onions, and beef.
Finish with a layer of potatoes on top, seasoning each layer.
Pour in ¾ pint of water and cover the pan with a lid.
Bake in the oven for 1.5 hours.
Gently shake the pot to mix the gravy with the potatoes and onions 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.

Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Walnut + potatotop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together342 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Walnut + peppertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,039 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

Beefsteak: Provides the meat, which becomes tender during the long, covered baking.
Potatoes: Form the bulk of the casserole and soften while absorbing the cooking liquid.
Onions: Add sweetness and aroma as they soften in the layers.

The step that matters

Covered baking. Keeping the lid on traps steam, so the beef and potatoes cook through in the water rather than drying out at the surface.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, onion, pepper):

Beansfits better
Black-eyed peafits better
Sesamefits better
Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, onion, pepper. 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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Beefsteak in Baking Pan