Name: Beefsteak Smothered with Onions
Ingredients: 1 lump of butter; 2 large onions, sliced thin; 1 beef steak; Salt and pepper to taste

Why it works: Onion and beef 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 ↓

Beefsteak Smothered with Onions

Ingredients

1 lump of butter
2 large onions, sliced thin
1 beef steak
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Melt the butter in a frying pan.
Cover the bottom of the pan with the sliced onions.
Lay the steak over the onions.
Fry the onions until tender.
Once the onions are tender, cover the steak with the onions.
Add more butter or lard as needed.
When cooked, place the steak on a platter and heap the onions on top.
Make a small amount of gravy in the pan, seasoning with salt and pepper, and pour it over the meat.

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.

Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,092 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together42,912 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter + beeftop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,847 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef steak: Provides the main meat, cooked in the pan until done.
Onions: Soften as they fry, adding sweetness and a savoury base for the meat.
Butter: Carries the frying and adds richness and browning to the onions.