Skip to main content
Main

Beefsteak, Pickled

A marinated steak pickled in vinegar and spices, then grilled and simmered in the sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Beefsteak, Pickled

Ingredients

Directions

Marinate

  1. Place the steak in a deep dish and cover with sliced onions.

  2. Add the tarragon vinegar, salad oil, white peppercorns, cloves, parsley, thyme, and marjoram.

  3. Let the steak marinate for about 12 hours.

Grill and simmer

  1. Drain and wipe the steak well, then grill it quickly over a clear fire for 7 to 8 minutes.

  2. Strain the marinade into a saucepan, bring to a boil, and season to taste.

  3. Add the steak to the marinade and cook gently for about 20 minutes.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Tarragon + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together148 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Tarragon + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together528 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
Forms the main body of the dish and becomes tender as it cooks in the acidic marinade.
Tarragon vinegar
Provides acidity that softens the meat and gives the pickled flavour.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma that flavour the marinade and the meat.
Salad oil
Adds fat that carries the herb and spice flavours and helps keep the meat moist.

The step that matters

Grilling the steak quickly over a clear fire. Searing the drained, dry surface quickly browns it and seals in juices. A wet or slow-cooked surface steams instead of browning, which leaves the meat grey and tough.

Swap the onion

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

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

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

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes