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Braised Beefsteak

A slow‑cooked beefsteak braised with onion, water, and spices, finished with a corn‑starch gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Braised Beefsteak

Oven, in the book's wordsA rather cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a rather cool oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the beef

  1. Dredge the beef well with salt, pepper, and flour.

  2. Place the sliced onion in a small saucepan or baking pan.

  3. Lay the meat on top, covering it closely.

  4. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

Braise

  1. Cook for 30 minutes.

  2. Add the boiling water and the clove.

  3. Cover the pan.

  4. Return to the oven.

  5. Cook very slowly for 2.5 hours.

  6. Baste with the gravy.

  7. Dredge with salt, pepper, and flour six times.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove the meat from the pan.

  2. Mix the corn-starch with a little cold water and stir into the gravy.

  3. Cook on the stove for 4 minutes.

  4. Strain over the meat.

  5. 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. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  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. Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Tough beef round
Long, slow braising breaks down connective tissue, making the meat tender and moist.
Flour
Dusting the meat helps it brown and gives the gravy body.
Onion
Sliced onion under the meat adds sweetness and aroma to the braising liquid.
Corn-starch
Thickens the strained gravy so it clings to the meat.

The step that matters

Cook very slowly for 2.5 hours. Low, gentle heat lets tough connective tissue soften into gelatin without drying out the muscle fibers. Rushing with higher heat leaves the beef stringy and tough.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cuminfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, corn, pepper, flour. 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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