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Beef and Pita Casserole

"This dish is my husband's favorite. He is a picky eater, but he never complains when I make this simple dish. Sauteed pita bread baked with beef sirloin strips and tomato sauce."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 5,445 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

The recipe

6 servings
Prep30 min
Cook20 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Rub half of the butter over the bottom and sides of a 9x13-inch baking dish, then spread the pita squares evenly in the dish.

  2. Bake the pita squares for 8 minutes, until lightly crisp and toasted at the edges.

  3. Melt the remaining butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the beef strips in a single layer and cook 3 to 4 minutes, stirring, until browned.

  4. Continue cooking the beef until it reaches 145°F (63°C) in the thickest part, then let it rest for 3 minutes.

  5. Pour the tomato sauce into the skillet with the beef and heat for 2 minutes, stirring to combine.

  6. Spoon the beef and sauce over the pita in the baking dish and toss gently so the pita is coated.

  7. Bake uncovered for 8 minutes, until hot and bubbling around the edges.

  8. Let the casserole stand for 3 minutes before serving.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Beef + tomatotop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,445 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + saucetop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together5,468 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Butter + saucetop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together15,317 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Butter + beeftop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together10,835 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  5. Pita bread + saucetop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together33 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce share little aroma chemistry, yet 15,317 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Flavor stand-ins for the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pita bread, butter, beef, sauce):

  1. Onionabout as good a flavor fit
  2. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pita bread, butter, beef, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).