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Beefsteak En Casserole

A casserole of broiled beefsteak topped with vegetables and a Worcestershire‑ketchup gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and beans match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,713 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beefsteak En Casserole

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the steak

  1. Broil the steak for about 15 minutes.

  2. Place the steak in a pan.

  3. Spread the steak with butter or marrow.

  4. Top with green pepper and tomatoes.

  5. Cook in the oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 15 minutes.

  6. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve

  1. Transfer the steak to a hot platter.

  2. Arrange a border of fried potato balls, sautéed mushrooms, fried onions, and other vegetables around it.

  3. Mix Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, Sherry wine, chopped celery, and parsley to make the gravy.

  4. Pour the gravy over the steak.

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. Tomato + beanstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,713 recipes

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

  2. Carrot + beanstop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,443 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,606 recipes

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

  5. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 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

Club steak
Forms the main body of the dish and is the protein that carries the flavor.
Butter or marrow
Adds fat that enriches the steak and helps it brown and taste rich.
Green pepper
Adds a fresh, slightly bitter vegetable flavor that contrasts with the rich meat.
Tomatoes
Add moisture and acidity that brighten the sauce and balance the richness of the beef.
Worcestershire sauce
Adds savory, tangy depth to the gravy.
Sherry wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the gravy, deepening its flavor.

The step that matters

Broil the steak for about 15 minutes. Steak cooked too long or too hot dries out and toughens because muscle proteins tighten and squeeze out moisture. Watching the time and surface color helps keep it juicy and browned outside.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper, tomato, fried potato, mushroom, onion, beans):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, tomato, fried potato, mushroom, onion, beans. 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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