Why it works: Pepper and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 50,459 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Beef Steak Stewed in Its Own Gravy
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the steak
Trim all fat and skin from the rump steak and cut it into pieces.
Dip the steak in cold water and let it drain briefly.
Sprinkle both sides with black pepper and coat thickly with flour.
Cook
Place the steak flat in a well-tinned iron saucepan or stewpan with 3-4 tablespoons of cold water.
Cook over a gentle fire, simmering for 1.5 to 1.75 hours until tender.
Add coarse sea salt when it begins to boil.
Turn the steak when more than half done.
For added flavor, stir in gravy, catsup, and spices if desired.
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.
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Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rump steak
- Provides the meat that becomes tender during long, gentle simmering.
- All-purpose flour
- Coats the steak and thickens the cooking liquid as it simmers.
The step that matters
Cook over a gentle fire. Simmering gently keeps the liquid below a hard boil, so the muscle fibres relax slowly and the steak becomes tender without toughening or drying out.
“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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