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Beef Steak En Casserole

A beef steak cooked in a casserole with butter, flour, broth, carrots, turnips, onions, mushrooms, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Beef Steak En Casserole

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt and brown the butter in a pan.

  2. Stir in the flour until well browned.

  3. Add the salt.

  4. Add the broth.

  5. Stir constantly until it boils.

  6. Add the cooked vegetables and mushrooms.

  7. Keep warm over hot water.

Cook the steak

  1. Rub a hot iron frying pan with suet.

  2. Lay the steak in the pan.

  3. Turn the steak every 10 minutes.

  4. Keep the pan very hot.

  5. Cook more slowly.

Bake and serve

  1. Transfer the steak to a hot casserole.

  2. Pour the vegetables and sauce over the steak.

  3. Place the casserole in a 400°F (200°C) oven for about 4 minutes.

  4. Sprinkle with parsley.

  5. Serve immediately.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sirloin or tenderloin steak
Provides the main meat, which is seared to brown the surface and keep it juicy.
Butter
Fat that is browned to add nutty flavour to the sauce base.
Flour
Thickens the broth into a sauce once it is cooked and browned with the butter.
Rich dark brown broth
Liquid that forms the body of the sauce and carries its savoury flavour.
Carrots and turnips
Cooked vegetable balls that add sweetness and texture to the casserole.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavour and softness to the sauce and vegetables.

The step that matters

Keep the pan very hot when searing the steak. A very hot pan browns the steak surface quickly through the Maillard reaction, building flavour and colour before the inside overcooks. A cool pan steams the meat and leaves it grey and tough.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, carrot, turnip, mushroom, parsley):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, carrot, turnip, mushroom, parsley. 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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