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Stuffed Beefsteak

A roast steak rolled with a breadcrumb and onion stuffing, topped with butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Stuffed Beefsteak

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the steak

  1. Use a round steak cut ½ inch thick.

  2. Lay the steak flat on a cutting board.

  3. Spread a thin layer of butter over the steak.

  4. Sprinkle the steak with salt and pepper.

Make and add the stuffing

  1. In a bowl, combine bread crumbs, chopped onion, salt, and pepper.

  2. Rub the mixture into the butter.

  3. Moisten the mixture slightly with milk until just softened.

  4. Spread the stuffing over the steak.

  5. Place small bits of butter on top of the stuffing.

  6. Roll the steak tightly, keeping the stuffing inside.

  7. Secure the roll with twine.

Roast and serve

  1. Place the roll in an iron pot.

  2. Roast like a pot roast.

  3. After cooking, remove the twine.

  4. Place the roll on a serving dish.

  5. Pour gravy around it.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Round steak (in the method)
Wraps around the stuffing and becomes tender during slow pot roasting.
Bread crumbs
Forms the bulk of the stuffing and soaks up butter and milk.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the steak and the stuffing.
Milk
Softens the crumbs so the stuffing holds together without becoming wet.
Onion
Adds savory aroma as it softens inside the roll during roasting.

The step that matters

Moistening the stuffing with milk. Bread crumbs absorb liquid quickly. Adding too much milk makes the stuffing mushy, so it can squeeze out while rolling and roasting. Add it slowly until the crumbs are just soft.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, pepper, milk. 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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