Skip to main content
Main

Stuffed Steak and Braised Onions

A steak stuffed with ham or bacon, breadcrumbs, spices, and braised with onions, carrots, and tomato, served with mashed potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Nutmeg and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Stuffed Steak and Braised Onions

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the roll

  1. Beat the steak slightly.

  2. Lay the steak on a board.

  3. Spread the minced ham or bacon over the beef.

  4. Sprinkle the steak with breadcrumbs, nutmeg, black pepper, salt, and mixed spice.

  5. Roll the steak.

  6. Skewer the roll in two places.

Brown and braise

  1. Heat butter or dripping in a fireproof dish until hot.

  2. Flour the roll.

  3. Place the roll in the hot fat, turning frequently until slightly browned.

  4. Drain off excess fat.

  5. Add flour, pepper, salt, and enough warm water to not cover the roll.

  6. Add sugar, vinegar, and sherry.

  7. Cover and stew slowly for about 1.5 hours, turning frequently.

Serve

  1. Add braised carrots, onions, and tomato before serving with mashed 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.

  1. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Vinegar + sherrytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together660 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Steak
Forms the outer wrap around the filling and becomes tender during slow stewing.
Minced ham or bacon
Adds savoury, salty flavour and fat that enriches the filling as it cooks.
Fresh breadcrumbs
Absorb juices and fat, keeping the filling moist and binding it together.
Butter or dripping
Carries heat for browning the roll and adds rich flavour to the sauce.
All-purpose flour
Coats the roll for browning and thickens the cooking liquid into a sauce.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aromatic depth to the braising liquid.

The step that matters

Stewing slowly with the lid on. Low, gentle heat over a long time breaks down the connective tissue in the meat so it turns tender. Turning the roll keeps it cooking evenly and stops it sticking or drying on one side.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, pepper, butter, flour, sugar, vinegar, sherry):

  1. Cinnamonfits about as well
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Clovefits about as well
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, pepper, butter, flour, sugar, vinegar, sherry. 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesPotato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesCarrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipes