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Smothered Beefsteak

Smothered Beefsteak is a rolled beef dish coated with bread crumbs and herbs, browned and stewed in butter and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and summer savory match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 237 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Smothered Beefsteak

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the roll

  1. Lay the meat out smoothly and wipe it dry.

  2. In a bowl, mix the bread crumbs, salt, pepper, butter, sage, summer savory, and enough milk to form a stiff mixture.

  3. Spread the mixture over the meat.

  4. Roll the meat carefully.

  5. Tie the roll with string, securing the ends well.

  6. If desired, add a finely chopped slice of onion to the dressing before rolling.

Brown and stew

  1. Fry the salt pork slices in a kettle or saucepan until browned.

  2. Add the beef roll to the rendered fat.

  3. Brown the beef roll on all sides.

  4. Add the water and stew until the meat is tender.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. When cooked, remove the meat.

  2. Thicken the gravy.

  3. Pour the gravy over the beef.

  4. Carve the beef crosswise into slices, cutting through the beef and stuffing.

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. Sage + summer savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together237 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Pepper + summer savorytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together671 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  5. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Bread crumbs
Absorb milk and butter to form a stiff stuffing that holds the roll together.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the stuffing, keeping it moist as it cooks.
Milk
Moistens the crumbs so they bind into a stiff, spreadable stuffing.
Beef steak
Forms the outer wrap that is browned and then stewed until tender.
Salt pork
Renders fat for browning the roll and adds savory flavor to the pan.

The step that matters

Brown the beef roll on all sides. Browning builds flavour through the Maillard reaction and seals the surface, so the roll keeps its shape and the gravy gains colour and depth during stewing.

Swap the summer savory

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits about as well
  3. Summer savorythe original
  4. Parsleyfits about as well

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