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To Stew Beef-steaks

A stew of browned beef steaks simmered with onion, walnut catsup, caper liquor, pepper, and salt in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

To Stew Beef-steaks

Ingredients

Directions

Brown the steaks

  1. Fry the steaks until browned.

Stew

  1. Add water, onion, walnut catsup, caper liquor, pepper, and salt.

  2. Cover and let stew gently.

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).

  4. Walnut + peppertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,039 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Onion + walnuttop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,771 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

Beef steaks
Browning in the pan builds savory flavor and color, and stewing turns the meat tender.
Onion
Softens and turns sweet as it stews, adding aroma and body to the liquid.

The step that matters

Fry the steaks until browned. Browning triggers the Maillard reaction, where heat turns meat sugars and proteins into savory, complex flavors and a deeper color. Steaks that are only grey or pale will taste flatter after stewing.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Sesamefits better
  2. Black-eyed peafits better
  3. Beansfits better
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, 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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