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Beef-Steaks and Onions

Beef steaks cooked with onions and a mushroom ketchup sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,232 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Beef-Steaks and Onions

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the steaks and onions

  1. Heat ½ pound of butter in a pan over medium heat.

  2. Season the beef steaks with pepper and coarse sea salt, then fry until done.

  3. Add the sliced onions to the pan and fry until they are nicely browned.

  4. Place the cooked steaks on a serving dish and top with the fried onions.

Make the sauce

  1. In the same pan, add mushroom ketchup and flour, stirring to thicken.

  2. Let the sauce boil for about one minute, then pour it 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. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

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

  3. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

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

  5. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Fat that carries heat into the pan and adds rich flavor and browning to the onions.
Beef steaks
The main protein, which browns on the surface while staying tender inside when cooked properly.
Onions
Sweetness and savory depth as their sugars caramelize during frying.
Mushroom ketchup
Adds concentrated savory, umami flavor to the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the pan juices into a smooth sauce as it heats with the liquid.

The step that matters

Stirring the flour into the pan drippings. Flour must be stirred into the fat and juices so it disperses evenly; otherwise it forms lumps and the sauce thickens unevenly.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, beef, pepper, mushroom, ketchup, 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.

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