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Stuffed Flank Steak En Casserole

A casserole of flank steak stuffed with bread dressing, bacon, and vegetables, simmered in tomato puree and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,555 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Stuffed Flank Steak En Casserole

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the roll

  1. Lay the steak on a board and spread a thin layer of bread dressing over it.

  2. Roll the steak tightly and fasten the sides and ends to enclose the dressing.

  3. Cut the fat pork or bacon into bits and cook until the fat is rendered.

  4. Dredge the meat roll with flour and rub it in thoroughly.

  5. Brown the roll in the rendered fat, turning until nicely colored on all sides.

Braise and finish

  1. Place the meat in a casserole dish that can be tightly closed.

  2. Add the sliced onion, carrot, and tomato puree to the dish.

  3. Rinse the frying pan with boiling water and pour it into the casserole.

  4. Cover and cook in a moderate oven (350°F/175°C) for three hours or longer.

  5. Mix the flour, salt, and pepper with cold water to make a smooth paste.

  6. Stir the paste into the liquid in the casserole and let it boil for two to three minutes.

  7. Strain the sauce over the meat and place boiled onions around the dish.

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. Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  2. Carrot + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,606 recipes

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

  3. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Flank steak
Forms the outer wrap and becomes tender during long, slow braising.
Bread dressing
Fills the roll, adding savory bulk and moisture as it cooks inside the meat.
Fat salt pork or bacon
Its rendered fat browns the outside of the roll and adds savory richness.
Flour
Coats the meat for browning and later thickens the sauce.
Tomato puree
Adds body and acidity to the braising liquid, deepening the sauce's flavor.

The step that matters

Browning the floured roll in the rendered fat. Searing the flour-coated surface on all sides creates browned, flavorful crust through the Maillard reaction. Pale meat will taste flat, and the sauce will lack depth.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, pork, flour, pepper, carrot, tomato):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, pork, flour, pepper, carrot, tomato. 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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