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Fried Beefsteaks

Fried beefsteaks cooked in their own fat and served with a gravy of boiling water or ketchup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fried Beefsteaks

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Trim the fat from the steak and place it in a frying pan over medium heat.

  2. If the steaks are tough, tenderize them with a rolling pin.

Fry the steak

  1. Once the fat is hot, add the steak to the pan and cover it.

  2. Fry until one side is done, then sprinkle with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  3. Turn the steak and cook to your desired doneness.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Transfer the steak to a hot dish.

  2. Add ⅓ cup of boiling water or ketchup to the pan to make gravy.

  3. Bring the gravy to a boil and pour it over the steak.

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. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  2. Beef + ketchuptop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Pepper + ketchuptop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,207 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef steak
Provides the main protein; its fat renders into the pan to cook the meat.
Fat from the steak
Renders in the pan to fry the steak and give it rich, browned flavor.

The step that matters

Fry until one side is done before turning. The steak must develop a browned crust on the first side before turning. Turning too early tears the surface and prevents even browning, while the covered pan helps the interior cook through.

“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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