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Scraped Beefsteak

A steak made by scraping raw beef into an oval cake and cooking it.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Scraped Beefsteak

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Scrape the raw beef from a tender piece and press it into an oval cake about ¾ inch thick.

  2. Rub warm butter over the beefcake.

Cook and serve

  1. Place it on a very hot frying pan and cook until browned on both sides.

  2. Season with butter, pepper, and coarse sea salt.

  3. Serve between hot plates.

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

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

  2. Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

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

  3. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Raw beef
Forms the main body of the dish and provides its meaty flavor when seared.
Warm butter
Adds richness and moisture to the surface and helps the beef brown.

The step that matters

Cook on a very hot frying pan until browned on both sides. A very hot pan sears the surface quickly, creating browning and flavor while keeping the inside of the raw beef from overcooking. A cooler pan would steam or dry the cake instead of browning it.

“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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