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Beefsteak Stewed

A stew of beefsteak pieces cooked with tomatoes, pepper, salt, butter, flour, and cloves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Beefsteak Stewed

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stew

  1. In a stew-pan, add the peeled and cut tomatoes.

  2. Sprinkle with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  3. Cook the tomatoes briefly to release some juice.

  4. Add the pieces of beef and small pieces of butter mixed with flour.

  5. Add the cloves and do not add water.

  6. Let it stew until the meat is fully cooked.

Finish and serve

  1. Press the tomatoes through a sieve and serve everything on the same dish.

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. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + beeftop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + clovetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Ripe tomatoes
Break down into a sauce that provides moisture and acidity for the stew.
Pieces of beef
Provide the main protein, which becomes tender as it stews slowly.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavour through the stew.
Flour
Thickens the cooking juices into a richer, more coating sauce.

The step that matters

Let it stew until the meat is fully cooked. Beef needs long, gentle simmering so its connective tissue softens; stopping early leaves meat tough. Keeping the heat low prevents the flour-thickened liquid from scorching.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, beef, butter, flour. 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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