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Pickled Steak, or Chops

A steak marinated in oil, vinegar, herbs, and spices, then fried and stewed in its own gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Pickled Steak, or Chops

Ingredients

Directions

Marinate

  1. Place the steak in a deep dish.

  2. Add sliced onions, garlic, peppercorns, salt, thyme, marjoram, parsley, and lime peel.

  3. Pour in oil and vinegar to soak the meat without covering it.

  4. Let it soak all day.

Cook and serve

  1. When ready, lift the steak from the marinade and fry lightly in butter until browned on both sides.

  2. Pour in the marinade and made gravy, then stew the steak gently until thoroughly cooked.

  3. Strain the liquid, remove fat, reduce over heat, and pour over the steak before serving.

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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Marjoram + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  5. Marjoram + limetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together59 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Steak
Is the main protein that is marinated, browned, and stewed until tender.
Onions
Add aromatic sweetness and flavour to the marinade that carries into the sauce.
Oil
Carries the flavours of the marinade and helps the meat brown evenly.
Vinegar
Adds acidity to the marinade, helping to tenderise the meat and brighten the flavour.
Butter
Browns the surface of the steak and adds rich flavour.
Made gravy
Provides liquid and body for stewing the steak and forming the final sauce.

The step that matters

Stew the steak gently until thoroughly cooked. Gentle, low heat lets connective tissue break down slowly, so the meat becomes tender rather than tough. Boiling vigorously toughens muscle proteins and can dry out the surface of the meat.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clove, garlic, thyme, marjoram, parsley, lime, vinegar):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Kalefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clove, garlic, thyme, marjoram, parsley, lime, vinegar. 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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