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Beefsteak Smothered

A beefsteak smothered in onions, tomatoes, and water, seasoned with pepper, salt, and flour, cooked in lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beefsteak Smothered

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Heat the lard in a pan.

  2. Add the steak and season with pepper, salt, and sifted flour.

Smother and cook

  1. Layer the onions and tomatoes on top.

  2. Pour in the water and cover with another pan.

  3. Cook until nearly done.

  4. Remove the cover and let it brown.

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 + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Flour + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Lard
Fat that fries the steak and carries flavour into the pan.
Sifted flour
Dusts the steak so its surface browns and the juices thicken slightly.
Onion
Softens and sweetens as it cooks, adding savoury depth to the pan juices.
Tomato
Adds acidity and moisture that combine with the water to braise the steak.

The step that matters

Remove the cover and let it brown. Steam trapped under the cover keeps the surface pale. Uncovering lets moisture evaporate so the steak and flour can brown, which develops savoury flavour through the Maillard reaction.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Okrafits better
  3. Eggplantfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, flour, tomato. 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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