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Steak and Macaroni

A stew of steak and macaroni simmered with stock, onion, peppercorns, and butter or dripping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 42,912 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Steak and Macaroni

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the steak into neat pieces.

  2. Heat the dripping (or butter) in a saucepan.

  3. Fry the steak quickly until browned.

  4. Remove the steak from the pan.

  5. Shred the onion.

  6. Add the shredded onion to the pan with the peppercorns.

  7. Cook until the onion is softened.

Simmer and serve

  1. Return the steak to the pan.

  2. Add the stock.

  3. Simmer for about three hours.

  4. Cook the macaroni separately according to package instructions.

  5. Serve the macaroni with the steak.

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. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Steak
Provides the main protein; browning it first builds savoury flavour in the pan.
Onion
Softens as it cooks, adding sweetness and body to the sauce.
Stock
Forms the cooking liquid and, reduced over the long simmer, gives the sauce its savoury depth.
Macaroni
Adds starch and bulk, soaking up the flavourful cooking liquid when served.

The step that matters

Fry the steak quickly until browned. Searing over high heat browns the surface through the Maillard reaction, creating savoury flavour that carries into the braising liquid. Steak crowded or left pale and steamed loses this depth.

“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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