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Fried Beefsteak

A steak fried with butter, salt pork, onions, and seasoning.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pork match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,690 recipes. Both carry 12-methyltridecanal, which smells tallowy, beefy. The science ↓

Fried Beefsteak

Ingredients

Directions

Sear the steak

  1. Heat a frying pan until very hot.

  2. Add the steak and cook for a few moments, loosening it with a knife and turning it quickly several times.

Serve

  1. Transfer the cooked steak to a hot platter.

  2. Season with salt and pepper, and add bits of butter on top.

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 + porktop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,690 recipes

    Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).

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

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

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

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

  4. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Beef steak
Forms the main protein, and its surface browns quickly in the very hot pan.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor as it melts over the hot steak.

The step that matters

Heat the frying pan until very hot. High heat browns the steak's surface quickly, creating flavor and a seared crust. In a pan that is not hot enough, the meat releases moisture and steams instead of searing.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Onionthe original
  4. Tomatofits about as well

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