Why it works: Flour and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 50,459 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Swiss Steak
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare and brown
Season the round steak with salt and pepper.
Pound flour into the steak until it is well coated.
Heat a frying pan and brown the steak on top of the stove.
Bake
Transfer the steak to the oven and bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 2 hours, basting occasionally.
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.
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Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Round steak
- Lean, tough cut that becomes tender with long, moist cooking.
- Flour
- Coats the surface, helping it brown and thickening the pan juices.
The step that matters
Browning the steak on top of the stove. Searing in a hot pan creates browned flavour through Maillard reactions. Crowding the pan or using low heat steams the steak instead, leaving the surface pale and flat-tasting.
“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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