Name: Baked Beefsteak
Ingredients: Round or sirloin steak; Coarse sea salt; Black pepper; Flour; Butter; Hot water

Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Baked Beefsteak

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

Trim off all fat from the steak and spread it out in a dripping pan.
Sprinkle the steak with coarse sea salt and black pepper, then dredge with flour.
Place bits of butter over the steak, using about the same amount as when broiling.
Add just enough hot water to the pan to moisten the flour.

Bake and make gravy

Bake for 30 minutes in a 400°F (200°C) oven.
After removing the steak, add a little water to the pan and make a thickened gravy.

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.

Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together50,459 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

Round or sirloin steak: Forms the main body of the dish and provides the meat that is baked and served.
Flour: Coats the steak and thickens the pan juices into gravy.
Butter: Adds fat and richness to the steak as it bakes.

“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.