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Beefsteak Fried

Beefsteak Fried is a steak cooked by searing and frying, finished with a flour-based gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Beefsteak Fried

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Heat a frying pan until very hot.

  2. Place the steak in the pan and let it sear for a few moments.

  3. Loosen the steak with a knife and turn it quickly several times.

  4. Transfer the cooked steak to a hot platter.

  5. Season the steak with salt, pepper, and bits of butter.

Render the fat and cook

  1. If using fat, trim it from the steak and cut it into small bits.

  2. Fry the fat bits in the skillet.

  3. Pound the steak.

  4. Sear the steak quickly.

  5. Dredge the steak with flour.

  6. Return the steak to the skillet.

  7. Repeat until fully cooked.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Prepare a hot platter.

  2. Cover the steak to keep it warm.

  3. In the skillet, stir in 1 tablespoon of flour until browned.

  4. Add ½ pint of boiling water, milk, or cream and stir well.

  5. Season with salt and pepper.

  6. Serve the gravy in a tureen.

  7. Spread bits of butter over the steak.

  8. Serve immediately.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Steak
The main protein; searing browns its surface while the inside cooks through.
Flour
Dredging coats the steak and, browned in the pan, helps thicken the gravy.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour over the steak's surface.
Water, milk, or cream
Forms the liquid of the gravy, loosening the browned flour into a pourable sauce.

The step that matters

Searing the steak quickly in a very hot pan. High heat browns the surface through the Maillard reaction, giving flavour and colour. In a pan that is not hot enough, the steak releases moisture and steams grey instead of browning.

“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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