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Beefsteak Smotheeed in Onions

A steak cooked with onions, salt pork, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pork and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,214 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beefsteak Smotheeed in Onions

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the onions

  1. Fry the salt pork in a skillet until crisp, then remove and keep hot.

  2. Slice the onions and fry them in the hot fat, covered, until tender, about 1 hour.

Cook and serve

  1. Remove the onions and place the beef in the skillet, covering it with the onions.

  2. Sprinkle a little coarse sea salt over the onions if needed.

  3. Cover and cook quickly without scorching.

  4. Serve on a hot platter with small bits of butter and a sprinkle of salt.

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. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  2. Pork + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,933 recipes

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

  3. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Sirloin or tender round steak
Forms the main meat that is cooked and served under the onions.
Onions
Soften into a sweet, moist layer that covers and flavors the beef.
Salt pork
Renders fat into the skillet to cook the onions and add savory flavor.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor when placed over the finished dish.

The step that matters

Cover and cook quickly without scorching. Onions and meat contain sugars and proteins that brown and burn quickly over direct heat. Keeping the lid on traps moisture for gentle steaming, so a quick cook without scorching depends on watching the heat closely.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Onionthe original
  3. Asparagusfits less well
  4. Capsicumfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, 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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