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To Stew Beefsteaks

A stew of beefsteaks cooked in strong gravy with butter, flour, and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

To Stew Beefsteaks

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Half-broil the beefsteaks.

  2. Place them in a stew pan.

Stew

  1. Season to taste and add enough strong gravy to cover.

  2. Add a bit of butter rolled in flour.

  3. Let them stew for 30 minutes.

  4. Stir in the beaten yolks of two eggs and cook for 10 more minutes.

  5. Serve hot.

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 + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour 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

Beefsteaks
Provides the meat that becomes tender during slow stewing.
Strong gravy
Supplies the liquid that cooks the beef and carries its flavour.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the sauce feel smooth.
Flour
Thickens the stewing liquid as it cooks with the butter.
Egg yolks
Enriches and thickens the sauce when stirred in and gently cooked.

The step that matters

Stirring in the beaten egg yolks. Egg yolks thicken when heated, but if the liquid is too hot or boils hard they can scramble and turn grainy. Keep the heat gentle and stir constantly while they set.

“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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