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Beefsteak, with Semi-fried Potatoes

A steak cooked in a pan with semi-fried potatoes and a simple flour‑water sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,052 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Beefsteak, with Semi-fried Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Rub and semi-fry the beef steak in a hot frying pan.

  2. Add thin slices of potatoes to the pan while the steak cooks.

  3. Turn the potatoes as often as you turn the steak.

  4. Once the steak is nearly done, sprinkle flour on both sides of the steak.

  5. Pour ½ cup of water into the pan and let it simmer for a few minutes to create a sauce.

  6. Serve the steak and potatoes with the gravy from the pan.

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. Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  3. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

Flour and butter 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

Beef steak
Provides the main protein; searing in a hot pan browns the surface and builds flavour.
Potatoes
Cook in the pan's fat, becoming golden and crisp on the outside while staying tender inside.
Flour
Coats the steak and thickens the pan liquid into a gravy.

The step that matters

Sprinkling the flour onto the nearly done steak. Flour needs fat and some heat to brown and thicken evenly. Adding it too early can burn in the pan, and adding it too late leaves it raw and lumpy in the gravy.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Potatothe original
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Shallotfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, flour, pepper, 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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