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Raw Beefsteak a LA Tart Are

A raw beef steak topped with a raw egg yolk, onions, pickles, sardines, and served with capers, mustard, oil, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Capers and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 624 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Raw Beefsteak a LA Tart Are

6 steaks

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Chop or grind the beef twice in a grinder.

  2. Mix the beef with salt and pepper.

  3. Form the mixture into 6 equal steaks, each 1 inch thick.

Assemble and serve

  1. Make a depression in the middle of each steak and carefully place a raw egg yolk in it.

  2. Garnish each steak with chopped onions, pickles, and rolled sardines.

  3. Serve with capers, mustard, oil, and vinegar.

  4. Serve the steaks fresh.

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. Capers + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together624 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  3. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  4. Onion + caperstop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,381 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 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

Beef
Forms the main body of the steaks, providing protein and rich savory flavor.
Egg yolks
Add richness and a creamy texture that binds with the beef when broken into it.
Sardines
Contribute a salty, savory, oily flavor as a garnish on each steak.
Capers
Add acidity and briny sharpness that cut through the richness of the beef and yolk.

The step that matters

Placing the egg yolk. Raw egg yolk is served uncooked, so the eggs must be fresh and high quality, and the beef should be well chilled and handled cleanly. The yolk should be placed carefully so it stays intact in the centre of the steak.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pepper, egg, capers, mustard, vinegar):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Horseradishfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, egg, capers, mustard, vinegar. 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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