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To Make Tough Steak Tender

A method to tenderize tough steak using vinegar, olive oil or melted butter, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,297 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, fruity. The science ↓

To Make Tough Steak Tender

Ingredients

Directions

Make the marinade

  1. Prepare a marinade by mixing vinegar, olive oil (or melted butter), and pepper.

Soak the steak

  1. Soak the steak in the marinade for at least 1 hour, turning occasionally.

  2. If the steak is very tough, prepare the marinade the night before and soak the steak overnight.

Cook

  1. When ready to cook, drain the steak from the marinade and proceed with broiling.

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. Vinegar + olivetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  2. Olive + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Vinegar
Acidity that helps loosen and tenderize the steak's surface proteins.
Olive oil or melted butter
Fat that carries the seasoning and helps keep the surface moist.

The step that matters

Soaking time for tough steak. Acid works slowly and only on the outer layer of the meat, so a short soak barely changes the texture. Longer soaking gives the marinade more time to act, which is why tough cuts are soaked overnight. Too long in acidic marinade can make the surface mushy, so drain it well before cooking.

“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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