Why it works: Pepper and flour 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 ↓
Fried Beef Steak
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Trim all fat and skin from the steak and cut it into pieces.
Dip the steak in cold water and let it drain.
Sprinkle both sides with pepper and coat with flour.
Cook
Place the steak in a well-tinned saucepan with 1 tablespoon of cold water.
Cook over low heat, simmering for 1.5 to 1.75 hours until tender.
Add salt when it begins to boil.
Turn the steak when more than half done.
Finish
Mix in gravy, catsup, and spices if desired.
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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Pepper + flourtop 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
- Rump steak
- Provides the meat that becomes tender through long, slow simmering.
- Flour
- Coats the steak, helping it brown and thicken the cooking liquid.
- Gravy
- Adds moisture and savory flavor to the finished dish.
The step that matters
Cook over low heat, simmering for 1.5 to 1.75 hours until tender. Low, gentle simmering breaks down the connective tissue in tough rump steak slowly. Boiling hard would toughen the muscle fibres and can dry out the meat, so the heat must stay low until the steak is fully tender.
“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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