Name: Stewed Round Steak
Ingredients: 2 pounds round beef, cut into 1-inch thick, 3-inch square steaks; 1 tablespoon drippings or butter (if needed); 1 can tomatoes or 1 quart fresh tomatoes, peeled and sliced; Salt, to taste; Pepper, to taste; Potatoes, for serving

Why it works: Tomato and potato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,798 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Stewed Round Steak

Ingredients

2 pounds round beef, cut into 1-inch thick, 3-inch square steaks
1 tablespoon drippings or butter (if needed)
1 can tomatoes or 1 quart fresh tomatoes, peeled and sliced
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste
Potatoes, for serving

Directions

Heat a frying pan over high heat and quickly brown the steaks.
If the steaks have no fat, add drippings or butter.
Add the tomatoes and season with salt and pepper.
Cover the pan and gently stew the steaks until cooked to your liking.
Serve the steaks on top of the tomatoes with boiled or baked potatoes.

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.

Tomato + potatotop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,798 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,448 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,052 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Round beef: Forms the main protein; slow gentle stewing tenderizes its connective tissue into a moist, tender texture.
Tomatoes: Provide acidity and moisture, forming the sauce the steaks cook and rest in.
Drippings or butter: Adds fat for richer flavor and helps the steaks brown in the pan.

The step that matters

Brown the steaks quickly over high heat. Searing creates browned, savory flavors through the Maillard reaction. Crowding the pan or using low heat steams the surface instead, leaving the steaks pale and bland before stewing.

Swap the tomato

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

Onionfits about as well
Capsicumfits about as well
Tomatothe original
Chivefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, pepper, potato. 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.

Tomato Soup526 recipes

Potato Croquettes255 recipes

Roast Beef211 recipes

Beef Loaf175 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Stewed Round Steak