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Spanish Steak

A steak baked with onions, potatoes, tomatoes, and cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Spanish Steak

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a baking tin, add a little butter, dripping, or water and heat it until very hot.

Bake in layers

  1. Lay the steak, about 1 inch thick, in the tin and bake slowly for about 15 minutes, basting well and seasoning with salt and pepper.

  2. Slice the onions very thin and cover the steak with an even layer.

  3. Bake until the onions are tender.

  4. Layer thin slices of potato over the onions and bake until tender.

  5. Cover with slices of tomato and bake again, basting occasionally.

  6. Sprinkle with grated cheese, let it melt, and serve.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  4. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  5. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Steak
Provides the main protein and meaty flavour as it bakes slowly in fat.
Onions
Soften as they bake, adding sweetness and savoury depth to the layers.
Potatoes
Form a tender starchy layer that absorbs juices from the steak and onions.
Tomatoes
Add moisture and acidity that brighten the rich, fatty layers.
Grated cheese
Melts over the top to add richness and savoury flavour.

The step that matters

Bake the steak slowly while basting. Slow baking in very hot fat, with regular basting, keeps the steak moist and lets its surface brown and flavour develop. Drying out here leaves the meat tough, so the juices need replenishing.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, potato, pepper, cheese, butter):

  1. Chivefits about as well
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Mustardfits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, potato, pepper, cheese, butter. 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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