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Beefsteak Pâté

A baked pâté made from ground beefsteak, eggs, milk, flour, baking powder, and tender fat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Beefsteak Pâté

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the meat

  1. Chop the round steak until it becomes a soft pulp.

  2. Season the meat highly with salt and pepper.

  3. Add a little chopped tender fat.

Make the batter

  1. Mix the beaten eggs with the milk.

  2. Pour the egg mixture slowly into the flour mixed with baking powder.

  3. Stir thoroughly into the meat mixture.

Bake

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about an hour.

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. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pepper + milktop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26,984 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Round steak
Forms the main body of the pâté and gives it its meaty substance.
Beaten eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set firm as it bakes.
Milk
Adds moisture and softens the texture of the batter.
All-purpose flour
Provides starch that thickens the batter and gives structure.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the pâté rises and lightens.
Tender fat
Adds richness and moisture so the meat stays tender.

The step that matters

Stir thoroughly into the meat mixture.. The batter must be evenly combined with the meat so the baking powder and flour distribute throughout. Uneven mixing leads to dense pockets and uneven rising and setting.

“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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