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Beefsteak and Onions

A steak cooked over coals and topped with a butter, onion, and lemon sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Beefsteak and Onions

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the steak

  1. Flatten the steak with the broad side of a hatchet.

  2. Broil the steak over clear coals.

  3. Place the steak on a chafing dish.

Make the onion butter

  1. Melt the butter in a small pan.

  2. Stew the sliced onion in the melted butter.

  3. Strain out the onion from the butter.

  4. Season the butter with salt and pepper, then squeeze in the lemon juice.

Finish and serve

  1. Pour the butter mixture over the steak.

  2. Cover the steak with a hot lid and let it stand for five 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.

  1. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  3. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef steak
Forms the main protein; broiling over direct heat browns its surface and develops flavor.
Onion
Stewing in butter softens it and releases sweetness and aroma into the butter.
Butter
Carries the onion and seasoning flavors and adds richness and moisture to the steak.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter and balances its fattiness.

The step that matters

Let the steak stand after covering. Resting lets juices redistribute through the meat instead of running out when cut, keeping the steak moister. Covering with a hot lid keeps it warm while it rests.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, butter, pepper):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Mangofits about as well
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Limefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, butter, 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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