Skip to main content
Main

Steaks and Cutlets

A pan‑fried steak or cutlet served with a simple flour‑based gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Steaks and Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the steak

  1. Season the steaks or cutlets with salt and pepper.

  2. Dredge both sides lightly with flour.

  3. Heat a frying pan.

  4. Add the steaks or cutlets.

  5. Move and turn them often for even cooking.

  6. Fry for 10 to 15 minutes until done.

  7. Transfer to a hot dish.

Make the gravy

  1. Pour off the fat from the pan.

  2. Add a small slice of butter.

  3. Stir in 2 teaspoons of flour.

  4. Brown the flour gently.

  5. Gradually pour in ¼ cup of hot broth or water, shaking the pan well.

  6. Add more salt, pepper, and a little catsup or preferred sauce.

  7. Pour the gravy over the steaks.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Flour + saucetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

Flour
Thickens the gravy and lightly coats the meat, helping it brown and sear.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the pan for browning the flour and carrying flavor into the gravy.
Broth or water
Liquid that dissolves the browned bits and forms the body of the gravy.
Catsup or preferred sauce
Adds acidity, sweetness and savory depth to the finished gravy.

The step that matters

Browning the flour gently. Flour cooked in fat develops nutty color and flavor when browned slowly; too much heat scorches it, giving a bitter taste. Pour the liquid in gradually and shake the pan so the flour blends smoothly without lumps.

“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