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Smyrna Steak

Finely chopped beef or mutton mixed with onion juice, salt, pepper, bread crumbs, and eggs, browned and simmered in butter and tomato juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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

  1. Combine the finely chopped beef or mutton with onion juice, salt, pepper, bread crumbs, and beaten eggs in a bowl, and mix the mixture well.

  2. Shape the mixture into rolls.

Cook

  1. Heat butter in a frying pan.

  2. Brown the rolls on all sides.

  3. Transfer the rolls to a kettle.

  4. Cover the rolls with melted butter and a little tomato juice.

  5. Simmer gently until the rolls are 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 rolls and provides savory flavor and richness.
Eggs
Bind the meat and crumbs together so the rolls hold their shape.
Fine bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and soften the texture of the minced meat.
Butter
Browns the outside of the rolls during frying and adds richness to the sauce.

The step that matters

Browning the rolls on all sides. Browning in hot butter builds color and flavor through the Maillard reaction. Cooking the rolls too gently leaves them pale and bland, and turning them unevenly leaves gaps in the crust.

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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