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Beefsteak Smothered in Onions

A steak smothered in sautéed onions, seasoned with pepper, salt, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pork and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,214 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beefsteak Smothered in Onions

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Fry the salt pork in a pan until brown, then remove it.

  2. Add the sliced onions to the pan and fry for about 10 minutes, stirring constantly.

Layer and smother

  1. Leave a thin layer of onions in the pan, then place the slice of steak on top.

  2. Add a layer of onions, then another slice of steak, and cover thickly with onions.

  3. Dredge each layer with pepper, salt, and flour.

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. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  2. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  3. Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

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

  4. Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef steak
Forms the main meat, cooking gently under the onion layers to stay tender and juicy.
Onions
Soften and sweeten as they fry, forming a moist, savoury blanket over the steak.
Salt pork
Renders fat into the pan, adding richness and flavour for frying the onions.
Flour
Dusted between layers, it thickens the cooking juices into a light sauce.

The step that matters

Frying the onions for about 10 minutes while stirring constantly. Onions that are not stirred can scorch on the pan base before they soften and turn sweet. Constant stirring spreads heat evenly so they cook down gently and brown without burning.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, pepper, flour):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, pepper, flour. 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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