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Savory Stewed Steak

A beef stew with onions, flour, and catsup or pickled walnut liquor, thickened and served hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Savory Stewed Steak

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Season the beef slices with pepper and salt.

  2. Thinly slice the onions.

  3. In a clean saucepan, layer the fat, onions, and beef alternately.

Cook

  1. Shake and turn frequently to prevent burning until browned.

  2. Let it stew in its own gravy until the meat is tender.

  3. Skim off the fat from the top.

Thicken and serve

  1. Mix flour with water and a little catsup or pickled walnut liquor.

  2. Gradually pour the mixture into the stew, stir well, and bring to a boil.

  3. Serve hot.

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. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  2. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Flour + walnuttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pepper + walnuttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,039 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Slices of beef
Provides the meat that becomes tender during slow stewing.
Onions
Soften as they stew, adding sweetness and flavor to the gravy.
Flour
Thickens the gravy as it comes to a boil.
Fat from the steak
Browns the meat and onions and carries flavor into the gravy.

The step that matters

Browning before stewing. Shaking and turning the beef and onions until browned builds deep flavor and color. Burning gives a bitter taste, so keep the heat controlled and turn often.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Black-eyed peafits better
  2. Sesamefits better
  3. Beansfits better
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, pepper, 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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