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Kentucky Beefsteak

A beefsteak coated in egg and crackers, fried then simmered in hot water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 33% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 50,580 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Kentucky Beefsteak

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Chop the sirloin with a hatchet, do not pound it.

  2. Dip the chopped meat in the beaten egg.

  3. Roll the meat in pulverized crackers.

Fry and simmer

  1. Fry the meat until almost done, seasoning with salt and pepper.

  2. Pour hot water over the meat until almost covered.

  3. Cover quickly and let simmer for 30 minutes.

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. Egg + peppertop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together50,580 recipes

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

Egg and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 50,580 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

Sirloin
Forms the main body of the dish and provides the meaty flavor being cooked.
Egg
Binds the cracker coating to the meat so it adheres during frying.
Pulverized crackers
Form a crisp, browned coating on the outside of the meat when fried.
Hot water
Creates moist steam and liquid for simmering the meat after frying.

The step that matters

Cover quickly and let simmer for 30 minutes. Covering the pan quickly traps steam so the meat stays moist while it simmers. Letting the pan lose heat or steam can dry the meat and loosen the coating.

“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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