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Smothered Beefsteak

A rolled beef steak coated in breadcrumb mixture, browned and stewed in pork fat with water, served with thickened gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and summer savory match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 237 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Smothered Beefsteak

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the roll

  1. Lay the meat out smoothly and wipe it dry.

  2. Prepare a dressing by mixing bread crumbs, salt, pepper, butter, sage, summer savory, and enough milk to form a stiff mixture.

  3. If desired, add finely chopped onion to the dressing before rolling.

  4. Spread the dressing over the meat, roll it up carefully, and tie it with string, securing the ends well.

Brown and stew

  1. Fry the salt pork in a kettle or saucepan until crispy.

  2. Place the beef roll in the rendered fat and brown it on all sides.

  3. Add water and stew until the meat is tender.

Finish and serve

  1. Once cooked, remove the meat, thicken the gravy, and pour it over the beef.

  2. Carve the beef crosswise into slices, cutting through the beef and stuffing.

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. Sage + summer savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together237 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Pepper + summer savorytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together671 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef steak
Forms the outer wrap and becomes tender through slow stewing in liquid.
Bread crumbs
Form the bulk of the dressing, absorbing milk and butter to hold the stuffing together.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the dressing, keeping it moist as it cooks.
Salt pork
Renders fat for browning the roll and adds savory, salty flavor to the gravy.
Milk
Moistens the bread crumbs so the dressing holds its shape when rolled.

The step that matters

Browning the roll. Searing the outside in rendered pork fat builds browned, savory flavor through the Maillard reaction. Pale meat tastes flatter, and the gravy built from the pan will lack depth.

Swap the summer savory

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits about as well
  3. Summer savorythe original
  4. Parsleyfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, pepper, butter, sage, milk, pork. 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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