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A Delicious Beefsteak

A beef steak cooked in a coffee and butter gravy, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,232 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

A Delicious Beefsteak

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the steak

  1. Heat your frying pan until very hot.

  2. Wipe the steak dry and place it in the pan, covering it closely.

  3. Turn the steak frequently while keeping it covered.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. When cooked, add hot coffee, butter, salt, and pepper to the gravy.

  2. Add mushrooms if desired.

  3. Pour the gravy over the steak and serve hot.

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. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  2. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

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

  4. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

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

  5. Beef + coffeetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together213 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methyl-3-(methyldithio)furan (thiamin, meat).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef steak
Provides the main meat, cooked whole and kept tender by covered pan cooking.
Butter
Adds richness and a glossy finish to the gravy.
Hot coffee
Adds a bitter, roasted depth that balances the richness of the gravy.

The step that matters

Turn the steak frequently while keeping it covered. Frequent turning spreads heat evenly so the steak cooks through without the outside overcooking. Keeping the pan covered traps moisture so the surface stays juicy rather than drying out.

“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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