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Beefsteak and Onions

Beefsteak and onions cooked together in a pan with suet, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beefsteak and Onions

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Heat a frying pan.

  2. Add the steak with the suet.

  3. Soak the onions in cold water.

Cook

  1. Add the onions to the pan.

  2. Season with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

  3. Cover tightly.

  4. Cook over heat until done.

  5. Alternatively, cook the steak and onions separately.

Serve

  1. Serve the steak on a hot platter.

  2. Top with the cooked onions.

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

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

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

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

  3. 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
Forms the main body of the dish and browns in the hot pan for flavour.
Suet
Adds fat that helps the steak brown and keeps the meat moist.
Onions
Soften and turn sweet as they cook, adding aroma and balancing the rich beef.

The step that matters

Cook over heat until done. Doneness depends on the steak's thickness and the heat, so judge by appearance rather than relying on a set time. Overcooking tightens the meat's proteins and squeezes out juices, leaving it dry and tough.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper. 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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