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Casserole of Beefsteak

A casserole of browned beefsteak simmered in butter, flour, water, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Casserole of Beefsteak

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the beef

  1. Cut the steak into at least 1-inch thick pieces.

  2. Melt the butter in a frying pan.

  3. Dredge the meat with flour mixed with salt and pepper.

  4. Brown the meat quickly on both sides.

Make the gravy

  1. Transfer the meat to a casserole dish or a baking pan with a well-fitting cover.

  2. Brown the remaining flour in the butter left in the pan.

  3. Add the water and milk.

  4. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  5. Pour the boiling liquid over the meat.

Bake

  1. Cover the casserole.

  2. Cook for 2 hours in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C).

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. 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 steak
Forms the main body of the dish and becomes tender during slow cooking.
Flour
Coats the meat for browning and thickens the liquid into a gravy.
Butter
Carries the browning of the meat and flour and adds richness to the gravy.
Milk
Adds creaminess and body to the gravy and gives it a mild sweetness.

The step that matters

Browning the flour in the butter. Flour that is cooked until lightly browned develops a nutty flavor and loses its raw taste. Stirring it constantly prevents scorching, which would make the gravy bitter.

“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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