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Beefsteak Spanish

A baked beefsteak topped with onions, tomatoes, and cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beefsteak Spanish

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Place the steak in a baking pan, leaving the rim of suet on the meat.

  3. Add water to the pan.

Bake and top

  1. Baste the steak every 10 minutes for 30 minutes.

  2. Remove the steak from the oven.

  3. Sprinkle the steak with salt and pepper.

  4. Cover the steak with sliced onions.

  5. Bake for an additional 15 minutes.

  6. Sprinkle the steak with more salt.

  7. Cover the steak with chopped tomatoes.

  8. Bake for another 15 minutes.

  9. Top the steak with grated cheese.

  10. Return the steak to the oven until the cheese melts.

  11. Serve with the gravy.

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. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + cheesetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,896 recipes

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

  5. Onion + cheesetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,849 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

Upper round steak
Forms the main body of the dish and becomes tender with slow, moist baking.
Sliced onions
Add sweetness and aroma as they soften and brown under the heat.
Chopped tomatoes
Add acidity and moisture that mingle with the pan juices to form the gravy.
Grated cheese
Melts over the top to add richness and a golden, savoury finish.

The step that matters

Basting the steak in the pan. Basting every 10 minutes keeps the surface moist with the water and pan juices, so the lean round steak does not dry out during the first baking period.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, tomato, cheese):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Eggplantfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, tomato, cheese. 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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