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Beefsteak and Onions

A steak seasoned and broiled, served with sautéed onions simmered in hot water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beefsteak and Onions

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the steak

  1. Broil the steak and season it with salt and pepper.

  2. Spread butter on the steak.

  3. Place the steak on a platter in the oven.

Cook the onions

  1. Slice the onions thinly.

  2. Fry the sliced onions in hot fat until brown, stirring frequently.

  3. Season the onions with salt and pepper.

  4. Add a little hot water to the onions.

  5. Let the onions simmer slowly for about 30 minutes or until the water has evaporated.

Serve

  1. Pour the onions over and around the steak.

  2. Serve immediately.

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. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  2. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Steak
Is the main protein, cooked by broiling and finished in the oven on a platter.
Onions
Browning and slow simmering turn them sweet and soft, forming a topping for the steak.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the steak's surface as it cooks.

The step that matters

Simmering the onions until the water has evaporated. Adding water and simmering slowly lets the onions soften and cook through; if the water is not fully evaporated the onions stay wet and lose their browned flavour. Stopping too early or too late changes the final texture.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, butter. 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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