Name: Stuffed Steaks Baked
Ingredients: 2 steaks, 1 inch thick; rich dressing (for turkey or sausage-meat); coarse sea salt; black pepper; lard; water; flour

Why it works: Turkey and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,636 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Stuffed Steaks Baked

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

Prepare a rich dressing as you would for turkey or sausage.
Place the dressing between the two steaks and secure them together.
Season the steaks with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

Bake

Place the steaks on a wire frame smaller than the baking pan.
Add a few bits of lard on top of the steaks.
Pour enough water into the pan.
Bake at 350°F (175°C).
Baste often.
Flour as usual for roasting.

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.

Turkey + peppertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,636 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together50,459 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Turkey + flourtop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together963 recipes

Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

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

What each ingredient does

Steaks: Form the main body of the dish, holding the dressing inside as they cook.
Rich dressing: Adds moisture and savory flavor to the steaks while they bake.
Lard: Adds fat that helps the surface brown and keeps the meat moist.
Flour: Helps the outer surface brown during roasting.

“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.