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Fried Steak and Gravy

A thick steak fried in lard and served with a cream gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 50,459 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Fried Steak and Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the steak

  1. Trim off all fat and gristle from the steak, wash with cold water, and wipe dry.

  2. Season the steak with salt and pepper, then coat thoroughly on both sides.

Fry the steak

  1. Heat a skillet with boiling lard and flour the steak on both sides.

  2. Fry the steak in the boiling lard, covering it to keep in the steam, until browned on both sides.

  3. Remove the steak, place it on a hot dish, and cover to keep warm.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. In the skillet, add 1 teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon pepper, and 1 heaping tablespoon flour to the remaining lard, stirring until smooth.

  2. Return the skillet to the stove, pour in 1 pint of cream or milk, and let it boil until thickened to your liking.

  3. Pour the gravy over the steak and serve hot.

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 + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  3. Pepper + creamtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Pepper and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 meat; frying in fat browns its surface for flavor and color.
Flour
Coats the steak and thickens the gravy as it cooks with the fat and liquid.
Lard
Fries the steak, transferring heat quickly and browning its surface while adding richness.
Cream or milk
Forms the liquid base of the gravy, adding body and richness as it thickens.

The step that matters

Boiling the gravy until thickened. Flour must be stirred smooth into the fat and then simmered with the liquid so its starch swells and thickens the gravy. Stopping too early leaves it thin and floury-tasting, while boiling too long can scorch the milk on the bottom of the skillet.

“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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