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Steak in Chafing Dish

A dish of steak pieces simmered with celery, onions, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and sherry in a chafing dish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Steak in Chafing Dish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and cook the vegetables

  1. Scald the chopped celery in boiling water for a few minutes.

  2. In a chafing dish, melt the butter over medium heat.

  3. Add the onions and cook until softened.

  4. Stir in the mustard, Worcestershire sauce, sherry, and scalded celery.

  5. Cook for 10 minutes, then add the steak pieces.

Finish the steak

  1. Cook until the steak is done to your liking.

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. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  3. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Mustard + saucetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,120 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Sherry + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Steak
Provides the main protein, which firms and browns as it cooks.
Onions
Soften as they cook, adding sweetness and savory depth to the sauce.
Celery
Adds a mild, crisp-tender vegetable texture after scalding.
Butter
Melts to carry flavor and enrich the pan base.

The step that matters

Cook the steak until done to your liking. Steak pieces cook quickly and can become tough and dry if overcooked. Checking doneness by sight and texture helps keep them tender.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, mustard, sauce, sherry, butter):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Garlicfits about as well
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, mustard, sauce, sherry, 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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