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Medford Steak

A steak rolled with bacon and onion, seasoned and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Medford Steak

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pound the round steak with a wooden potato masher until thin.

  2. Cut the steak into uniform pieces.

  3. Place each piece on a small bit of uncooked bacon and add a little chopped onion.

  4. Season well with salt and pepper.

Roll and cook

  1. Roll the steak pieces, tie them, and place in a baking pan.

  2. Add a little butter and cook for an hour.

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 + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  2. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Round steak
Forms the main body of the dish, and pounding it thin lets it cook through evenly.
Uncooked bacon
Adds fat that renders during cooking, keeping the lean steak moist and flavourful.
Chopped onion
Contributes aroma and mild sweetness as it softens during cooking.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the outside of the rolls brown in the pan.

The step that matters

Pound the steak to an even thickness. Uneven thickness makes thin edges dry out and tough while thick areas stay underdone. Even pounding lets the rolls cook at one rate and keeps the meat tender.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, butter):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, 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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