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Wakefield Steak

A steak marinated in salt, pepper, sugar, tarragon, relish, and vinegar, then broiled and served with butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,399 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Wakefield Steak

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Score the steak on each side, crossways.

  2. In a tart dish, combine salt, pepper, sugar, tarragon, Soyer's relish, and vinegar.

  3. Place the steak in the mixture for six hours, turning occasionally.

Cook and serve

  1. Before broiling, dredge the steak lightly with flour.

  2. Broil the steak, serving with small pieces of butter underneath.

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 + tarragontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,547 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Tarragon + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together788 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Steak
The main protein; scoring helps the marinade penetrate and the meat cook evenly.
Vinegar
Acidity in the marinade that softens surface proteins and adds tang.
Sugar
Sweetness that balances the acidity and supports browning on the surface.
Flour
Dry coating that helps the surface brown and form a light crust under the broiler.
Butter
Fat that adds richness and moisture as it melts under the steak.

The step that matters

Dredging with flour before broiling. Flour must be dry and light on the surface; if the steak is still wet from the marinade, the coating turns pasty instead of browning. Patting the steak dry first helps it crisp.

Swap the tarragon

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

  1. Cinnamonfits about as well
  2. Tarragonthe original
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Allspicefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, sugar, vinegar, flour, butter. 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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