Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Beefsteak Roll
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the meat mixture
Grind the round steak in a meat chopper after removing the fat.
Season the ground meat with salt and pepper.
Add the beaten egg, melted butter, and milk to the meat mixture.
Soak the bread slices in warm water, then squeeze them dry and add to the mixture.
Form the mixture into a loaf shape.
Bake and serve
Place the loaf in a pan with the meat stock and bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 30 minutes, basting often.
If using water, add tomato ketchup and Worcestershire sauce to the pan.
Make a gravy from the pan juices and pour it around the meat before serving.
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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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Bread + meattop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,924 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Round steak
- Forms the main body of the loaf, providing the meaty structure and substance of the dish.
- Large egg
- Binds the ground meat together so the loaf holds its shape when sliced.
- Bread
- Soaked and squeezed, it adds moisture and softness that keeps the loaf tender.
- Milk
- Adds moisture to the mixture, helping keep the loaf from drying out during baking.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat that enriches the meat and contributes moisture and flavour to the loaf.
The step that matters
Basting the loaf while it bakes. Ground meat dries out quickly in the oven. Regular basting with the pan liquid keeps the surface moist and adds flavour, while the bread and fat in the mixture help the interior stay tender.
“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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