Name: Steak with Asparagus
Ingredients: 2 dozen asparagus sticks; ½ cup veal suet; 1 tender steak; salt; pepper; 1 clove garlic; 2 ounces calf’s foot jelly; butter; flour

Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Steak with Asparagus

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Make a light rich paste seasoned with pepper and a little savory herb.
Roll the paste out to ¼ inch thick.
Wrap each asparagus stick in the dough.

Assemble

Melt veal suet in a pie dish.
Lay the wrapped asparagus in the melted suet.
Sprinkle the steak with salt and pepper, and rub with garlic.
Place the steak on top of the asparagus.
Set the dish on a trivet in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C).
Place a few lumps of butter rolled in flour on the steak.

Bake and serve

When the steak is half done, pour in warmed calf’s foot jelly.
Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
Serve in the baking dish.

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.

Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Asparagus + garlictop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together606 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Pepper + garlictop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,090 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Asparagus + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,968 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Clove + garlictop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,368 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal suet: Melts under the steak to add rich fat and moistness while the asparagus cooks.
Flour: Thickens the butter and paste so they hold together and brown lightly in the oven.
Butter: Adds fat and browning to the steak surface as it melts and bastes it.
Calf’s foot jelly: Adds gelatin that sets into a savory glaze and adds moisture when poured in mid-cooking.
Asparagus sticks: Main vegetable, wrapped in paste so it steams gently in the suet.

The step that matters

Pouring in the calf’s foot jelly at the halfway point. Gelatin needs to be warm enough to pour and mix into the hot fat, but added too early it will cook away or dilute the juices. Timing it when the steak is half done lets it set into a glaze as the dish cools.

Swap the clove

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

Parsleyfits better
Tarragonfits better
Capersfits better
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against asparagus, veal, pepper, garlic, butter, flour. 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.