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English Beefsteak

A steak seasoned with salt, pepper, and saleratus, then seared and finished with butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 85,593 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

English Beefsteak

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the steak

  1. Pound the steak well until the fibers break.

  2. Rub the steak with saleratus.

  3. Let the steak stand for 2 hours or overnight.

  4. Rinse off the saleratus quickly.

  5. Wipe the steak dry.

Cook

  1. Heat a skillet.

  2. Grease the skillet with butter.

  3. Place the steak in the skillet.

  4. Turn the steak often to sear and keep the juices inside.

  5. Cover the steak.

  6. Set it on the back part of the stove for a short time.

  7. Remove the steak to a hot platter.

  8. Season the steak with butter, salt, and pepper.

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 + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Steak
Pounding breaks up the muscle fibers, which helps make the meat more tender.
Saleratus (baking soda)
Alkaline rub that tenderizes the surface of the meat and promotes browning.
Butter
Greases the skillet and adds richness and flavor to the finished steak.

The step that matters

Turn the steak often to sear and keep the juices inside.. Frequent turning builds an even browned crust over the surface. Overcooking at high heat pushes juices out of the muscle, leaving the steak dry, so it should be watched closely.

“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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