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Braised Beefsteak with Brown Gravy

Braised beefsteak served with a brown gravy and oysters.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Summer savory and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 143 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Braised Beefsteak with Brown Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Braise the beef

  1. Rub the salt, pepper, and summer savory into the beef on both sides.

  2. Place the beef in a kettle with water, wine, 1 oz of butter, and half the flour.

  3. Cover and simmer gently for 2 to 3 hours, or until tender.

Brown and fry

  1. Heat a frying pan and melt a little butter.

  2. Brown the beef in the hot butter, turning once.

  3. Fry the oysters in the same pan.

  4. Place the beef on a platter and top with oysters.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Strain the gravy into the frying pan, adding enough water to make about 1 pint.

  2. Mix the remaining flour with a few drops of cold water and stir into the boiling gravy.

  3. Boil for 5 minutes, or longer if not thick enough, then pour over the beef and serve.

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. Summer savory + clovetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together143 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Flour + summer savorytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together263 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Round steak
Long gentle simmering breaks down connective tissue, making the beef tender.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a gravy as it heats and boils.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavor, and browns the beef and oysters in the pan.
Oysters
Frying gives them a savory, browned edge that flavors the dish.
Wine
Adds acidity and depth to the braising liquid that becomes the gravy.

The step that matters

Thickening the gravy with flour and water. Flour must be mixed smooth with cold water before it goes into the boiling gravy; added dry or lumpy, it clumps. Boiling then activates the starch so the gravy thickens properly.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, oyster, butter, wine, pepper, summer savory, clove):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, oyster, butter, wine, pepper, summer savory, clove. 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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