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Fried Beefsteak

Beef steak pieces fried and served with a gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fried Beefsteak

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the steak

  1. Trim fat from the steak and cut it into small bits.

  2. Place the steak in a skillet and cook until done, then remove.

  3. Add a little fresh lard to the skillet.

  4. Cut the steak into serving-sized pieces.

  5. Pound the pieces.

  6. Season with salt and pepper.

  7. Roll the pieces in flour.

Fry and make the gravy

  1. Place the steak in the skillet with smoking hot grease and fry until nicely browned on both sides.

  2. Remove the steak to a hot platter and keep warm while making the gravy.

  3. In the skillet, add 2 tablespoons of flour to the grease and stir until smooth.

  4. Gradually add 1 pint of cold water (or milk) and stir until it boils.

  5. Season with additional salt to taste.

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

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

  2. Beef + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,759 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pepper + milktop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26,984 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
Coats the steak pieces and, mixed with fat, thickens the gravy.
Fresh lard
Provides frying fat that browns the steak and carries flavour into the gravy.
Beef steak
Main ingredient, cooked and then fried until browned on the outside.

The step that matters

Frying the floured steak in smoking hot grease. If the fat is not hot enough, the flour coating absorbs grease and turns soggy instead of forming a crisp, browned crust. Hot fat sears the surface quickly and seals in juices.

“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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