Skip to main content
Main

Casserole Flank Steak

A casserole of flank steak rolled with oat and crumb filling, baked with potatoes and carrots.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Sage and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Casserole Flank Steak

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 filling

  1. Score the flank steak, being careful not to cut all the way through. Brush with vinegar and let stand while preparing the filling.

  2. Pour boiling water over the rolled oats and cook until absorbed.

  3. Mix the cooked oats with browned corn or muffin crumbs, salt, fine sage, chopped onion, chopped green pepper, and pepper, adding enough water to moisten.

Roll and bake

  1. Spread the filling on the steak, roll it up, and secure with skewers or string.

  2. Lard the rolled steak with trimmings from the steak.

  3. Place the rolled steak in a greased casserole, arrange the small potatoes and tiny carrots around it, pour in ½ cup water, cover, and bake at 400°F (200°C) for about 2 hours.

Make the gravy

  1. Remove the meat and vegetables, and use flour and water as needed to make gravy.

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. Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  3. Potato + carrottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

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

  4. Corn + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together938 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

Flank steak
Forms the main meat, rolled around the filling so it becomes tender during the long covered bake.
Rolled oats
Absorb boiling water and bind with the crumbs to form a moist, cohesive stuffing.
Browned corn or muffin crumbs
Add toasted flavour and body to the filling, helping it hold together inside the roll.
Small potatoes
Absorb cooking juices and turn soft and starchy as they bake beside the meat.
Tiny carrots
Add sweetness and soften as they bake in the covered casserole.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into gravy when combined with water.

The step that matters

Covered baking of the rolled steak. Flank steak is lean and tough, so it needs a long, moist, covered bake at a steady temperature to break down its connective tissue. Baking too hot or uncovered can dry the meat before it becomes tender.

Swap the sage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, oats, corn, onion, pepper, potato, carrot):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Cuminfits better
  4. Sagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, oats, corn, onion, pepper, potato, carrot. 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.

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesCorn FrittersCorn Fritters203 recipesCarrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipes