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Stewed Beef Steak

A steak stewed in butter, water, wine, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Walnut and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 440 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Stewed Beef Steak

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the steak

  1. Place the steak in a stewpan with 1 tablespoon of butter over low heat.

  2. Turn the steak until the butter forms a white gravy.

  3. Pour the gravy into a basin and add another tablespoon of butter to the steak.

  4. Once the steak is cooked, remove it and return the gravy to the stewpan.

Finish and serve

  1. Fry the steak, then add it back to the gravy with wine and shallot.

  2. Stew for 10 minutes and serve hot.

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. Walnut + shallottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together440 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  3. Onion + shallottop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

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

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

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, which firms and becomes tender as it cooks in the gravy.
Butter
Browns and enriches the steak and forms the base of the gravy.
Shallot
Adds a mild, aromatic sweetness that deepens the sauce.
Wine
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the rich gravy.

The step that matters

Turn the steak until the butter forms a white gravy. Cooking over low heat lets the butter and meat juices emulsify into a gravy rather than burning. Excess heat would brown the butter too quickly and turn the gravy bitter.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, onion, ketchup, pepper, wine, shallot):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Sesamefits better
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, onion, ketchup, pepper, wine, shallot. 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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