Skip to main content
Main

Beef Steak En Casserole

A casserole of browned onions, seared steak, potatoes, and water, cooked slowly until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beef Steak En Casserole

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef and onions

  1. Brown the sliced onions in butter in a frying pan.

  2. Transfer the onions to a casserole dish.

  3. Sear the round steak pieces in the hot pan, then add to the casserole.

Cook the casserole

  1. Season the mixture and add the water.

  2. Cover and cook slowly for 2 hours or until nearly tender.

  3. Add the sliced potatoes and cook until done.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Round steak
Provides the meat that becomes tender during slow, covered cooking.
Onions
Soften and sweeten as they brown in butter, adding flavor to the casserole.
Butter
Carries the browning of the onions and adds richness.
Potatoes
Absorb liquid and thicken the casserole as they finish cooking.

The step that matters

Cover and cook slowly for 2 hours. Low, covered heat breaks down the connective tissue in round steak gradually. Cooking too fast or uncovered can toughen the meat and dry out the liquid before it is nearly tender.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Chivefits about as well
  2. Onionthe original
  3. Asparagusfits less well
  4. Leekfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, 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.

More beef casserole recipes

Baked 3 See all 10 →

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipesPotato ChipsPotato Chips53 recipesSweet Potato CroquettesSweet Potato Croquettes53 recipes