Name: Stewed Steak
Ingredients: steak; ½ cup vinegar; flour; salt; pepper; 1 cup cold water

Why it works: Vinegar and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,814 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Stewed Steak

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the steak

Cut the steak into dice and soak them in vinegar for a few minutes.
Roll the soaked steak in a mixture of flour, salt, and pepper.

Cook and serve

Place the steak in a saucepan with cold water.
Cover and cook slowly for 2 hours.
Serve with pieces of lemon or other garnishes.

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.

Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together50,459 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Vinegar + flourtop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,652 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

Steak: Provides the meat that becomes tender during slow, covered cooking.
Vinegar: Acidity from the soak helps loosen meat fibres and adds a sharp tang.
Flour: Coats the meat, helping it thicken the liquid and hold together.

“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.