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Staffordshire Beefsteak

A stew of beefsteaks seasoned with flour, salt, pepper, onion, and ketchup, simmered in boiling water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and onion 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 ↓

Staffordshire Beefsteak

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and brown

  1. Beat the beefsteaks lightly with a rolling pin, then season with flour, coarse sea salt, and black pepper.

  2. Fry the seasoned steaks with the sliced onion until browned.

Stew and finish

  1. Place the steaks in a stewpan and pour enough boiling water over them to create a sauce.

  2. Stew gently for about 30 minutes.

  3. Add ketchup before serving.

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

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

  2. Flour + ketchuptop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,435 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Flour + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Onion + ketchuptop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,997 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Beefsteaks
The main protein, providing the meaty body and savoury flavour of the dish.
Flour
Coats the steaks so they brown well and helps thicken the sauce.
Onion
Softens and sweetens as it fries, adding aroma and depth to the sauce.
Ketchup
Adds sweetness, acidity and colour to the sauce.

The step that matters

Browning the seasoned steaks. Frying until browned drives the Maillard reaction, which builds the roasted, savoury flavour the stew depends on. Pale, steamed steaks will taste flat.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Horseradishfits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, pepper, ketchup. 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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