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Smyrna Steak

Smyrna steak is a seasoned beef or mutton roll coated with breadcrumbs and eggs, browned and simmered in butter and tomato juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Smyrna Steak

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Chop the beef or mutton very fine.

  2. Season with onion juice, salt, and pepper.

  3. Add fine bread crumbs and beaten eggs; mix well.

Brown and simmer

  1. Form into rolls and brown in hot butter in a frying pan.

  2. Transfer to a kettle, cover with melted butter and a little tomato juice.

  3. Simmer gently until tender.

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. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  4. Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 recipes

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

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

Beef or mutton
Forms the main body of the dish and gives it its rich meaty flavor.
Fine bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help bind the chopped meat into a cohesive roll.
Eggs
Bind the mixture together and help it hold its shape when cooked.
Butter
Browns the outside of the rolls and adds richness and flavor.
Tomato juice
Adds acidity and moisture to the liquid the rolls simmer in.

The step that matters

Simmer gently until tender. Gentle heat lets the connective tissue in the meat break down slowly, so it becomes tender; a hard boil toughens the proteins and can dry out the rolls.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pepper, bread, egg, butter, tomato):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, bread, egg, butter, tomato. 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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