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Porterhouse Steak

A roasted porterhouse steak served with vegetables and Bovril gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Porterhouse Steak

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Cut the bacon into long, narrow strips and lard one side of the steak with them.

  3. Chop the carrot, turnip, and onion into ¼-inch pieces.

Bake

  1. Place the vegetables in a pie dish with some dripping, salt, and pepper.

  2. Lay the steak on top of the vegetables, larded side up, and pour in a little water.

  3. Bake for 45 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove the steak and place it on a hot dish.

  2. Mix the Bovril with the gravy and strain it over the steak.

  3. Garnish with the vegetables and serve.

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. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  4. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  5. Turnip + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,252 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Porterhouse steak
Provides the main protein; larding with bacon adds fat and moisture as it bakes.
Fat bacon
Melts into the steak during baking, adding richness and flavour to the meat.
Onion
Softens and sweetens as it bakes, flavouring the gravy beneath the steak.
Bovril
Adds concentrated savoury depth to the gravy poured over the steak.

The step that matters

Bake for 45 minutes. Baking the steak at a moderate oven heat for the stated time cooks the meat through gently. Checking doneness against the thickness of the steak helps avoid overcooking, which makes meat dry and tough.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Beetrootfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, turnip, pepper. 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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