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Beefsteaks with Tomato Sauce

Beefsteak served with a tomato sauce made from stewed tomatoes and beef gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beefsteaks with Tomato Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the tomato sauce

  1. Scald and skin the tomatoes.

  2. Stew the tomatoes slowly in the beef gravy.

  3. Add the chopped onion if desired.

  4. Stew for one hour.

Cook and serve the steak

  1. Broil the steak carefully and quickly.

  2. Place the steak on a hot platter.

  3. Spread butter over the steak.

  4. Season the steak with salt and pepper.

  5. Pour the hot tomato sauce over the steak.

  6. 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. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + beeftop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  5. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Break down during stewing to form the body and tangy flavour of the sauce.
Beef gravy
Provides the liquid base and savoury beef flavour for the tomato sauce.
Steak
Main protein, browned under high heat for flavour and kept juicy by quick cooking.
Butter
Adds richness and a glossy finish that carries flavour over the hot steak.

The step that matters

Broil the steak carefully and quickly. High heat browns the surface and seals in juices; overcooking toughens the proteins and dries the meat, so the steak should be watched closely.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, butter, pepper):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, butter, pepper. 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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