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A steak marinated in oil, vinegar, onion, garlic, spices, pepper, salt, parsley, and sweet herbs, then cooked and served.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Steaks

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Beat the steak well before cooking.

  2. Make a marination with oil, vinegar, onion, garlic, spices, pepper, salt, parsley, and sweet herbs.

  3. Steep the steak in the marination for 10-12 hours, turning it at intervals.

Cook and serve

  1. Cook the steak in the usual way, serving it au naturel or with parsley and butter.

  2. For steak and onions, fry the onions and broil the steak, then serve together.

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 + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Garlic + parsleytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,308 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Clove + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Oil
Carries flavour through the marinade and keeps the steak moist while it sits.
Vinegar
Acidity in the marinade gently softens the meat's surface over the long soak.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aroma to the marinade and, fried, to the steak-and-onions option.
Garlic
Adds pungent aroma to the marinade.
Butter
Adds richness and browning to the steak when used for cooking or serving.

The step that matters

Steeping the steak for 10-12 hours. Acid in the marinade only penetrates the surface, so a long soak mainly tenderises the outer layer. Turning the steak at intervals keeps every side evenly in contact with the liquid.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, vinegar, onion, garlic, pepper, parsley, butter):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, vinegar, onion, garlic, pepper, parsley, butter. 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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