Name: Beefsteak with Wine Sauce
Ingredients: 1 glass brown sherry (⅓ cup); 1 large spoonful mushroom or walnut catsup (2 tablespoons); 2 tablespoons butter; a dusting of flour; pepper to taste; coarse sea salt to taste

Why it works: Sherry and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,176 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Beefsteak with Wine Sauce

Ingredients

1 glass brown sherry (⅓ cup)
1 large spoonful mushroom or walnut catsup (2 tablespoons)
2 tablespoons butter
a dusting of flour
pepper to taste
coarse sea salt to taste

Directions

Cook the steak

Flatten and broil the steak as usual.

Make the sauce

Prepare the sauce by combining sherry, catsup, butter, flour, pepper, and salt in a saucepan.
Heat the sauce to boiling.

Serve

Pour the sauce over the steak.
Cover and let it stand for a few minutes 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.

Sherry + mushroomtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,176 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).
Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,525 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,580 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sherry + buttertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,505 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Brown sherry: Adds acidity and wine flavour that deglazes and brightens the sauce.
Mushroom or walnut catsup: Adds concentrated savoury, umami depth to the sauce.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, giving the sauce a smooth, rounded mouthfeel.
Flour: Thickens the sauce as it heats, giving it body.

The step that matters

Heating the sauce to boiling. Flour must be heated long enough to cook out its raw taste and thicken the liquid. Stirring while it heats prevents lumps, and the sauce should be used once it has thickened.

“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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Beefsteak with Wine Sauce