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Beefsteak Stewed Without Water

A stew of beefsteak cooked in butter and catsup without water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 22% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,918 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Beefsteak Stewed Without Water

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and cook

  1. Melt the butter in a large frying pan without browning.

  2. Quickly wash the steak in cold water and place it in the frying pan, covering it closely.

  3. Once heated, season the steak with salt and white pepper.

  4. Push the pan back on the stove to simmer, keeping it covered with a weight.

  5. Cook for 1.5 hours until tender.

Serve

  1. Transfer the steak to a hot dish and add tomato or walnut catsup to the gravy in the pan, pouring it over the steak.

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 + tomatotop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Butter + white peppertop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. White pepper + tomatotop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together226 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl butyrate (fruity, apple).

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, covered simmering.
Butter
Adds fat and flavor to the pan without browning, helping the steak sear lightly in its juices.
Tomato or walnut catsup
Adds acidity and savory depth to the gravy that forms in the pan.

The step that matters

Simmer covered on low heat. Gentle, covered simmering lets the tough connective tissue in the steak break down slowly into tenderness. Too much heat or an uncovered pan can dry the meat and toughen it before that happens.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, tomato. 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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