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Savoury Steak

Savory steak rolled with breadcrumbs, suet, herbs, onion, then stewed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Savoury Steak

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the roll

  1. Mix the bread crumbs, suet, parsley, dried herbs, and a little milk.

  2. Spread the mixture over the steak, roll it up, and tie it with string.

Brown

  1. Heat butter in a frying pan.

  2. Add the sliced onion and fry until golden brown.

  3. Add the rolled steak to the pan and fry until browned on all sides.

Stew

  1. Transfer the steak to a stew pan, add ¾ pint of water, cover, and stew gently for 2 hours.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  5. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Steak
The main protein, which becomes tender through long, gentle moist cooking.
Bread crumbs
Soak up moisture and milk to form a soft stuffing that holds the roll together.
Suet
Adds fat that melts into the stuffing, keeping it rich and moist.
Onion
Browns to add sweetness and savoury aroma to the cooking liquid.
Butter
Fat that carries heat for even browning of the onion and steak.

The step that matters

Stew gently for 2 hours. Keeping the liquid below a hard boil avoids toughening the meat and stops the stuffed roll from breaking apart. Slow, moist heat over time breaks down connective tissue, making the steak tender.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, parsley, pepper, milk, butter):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, parsley, pepper, milk, butter. 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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