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Beefsteak with Onions

A steak cooked with onions, butter, and lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beefsteak with Onions

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the steak

  1. Pound the rump steak with a rolling pin until tender.

  2. Flour the steak.

  3. Season the steak with salt and pepper.

  4. Heat hot lard in a frying pan.

  5. Fry the steak until nicely brown on both sides.

  6. Remove the steak from the pan.

  7. Dredge the steak with flour.

Cook the onions

  1. Boil the onions until tender.

  2. Strain the onions in a colander.

  3. Add the onions to the frying pan.

  4. Season the onions with salt and pepper.

  5. Dredge the onions with a little flour.

  6. Add a small lump of butter to the pan.

  7. Stir frequently to prevent scorching.

  8. When the onions are soft and slightly brown, return the steak to the pan.

  9. Heat together.

Serve

  1. Place the steak on a large dish.

  2. Pour the onions and gravy over it.

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

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

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Flour + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Rump steak
Pounding tenderises the meat, and frying browns its surface for flavour.
Onions
Boiling softens them, and frying them later adds sweetness and a savoury base for the gravy.
Flour
Coats the steak and onions so the pan drippings thicken into a gravy.
Lard
Fat for frying that browns the steak and carries flavour into the onions.
Butter
Adds richness and a rounded flavour to the onions and gravy.

The step that matters

Stir the onions frequently. Onions with sugars and flour in hot fat can scorch quickly, turning bitter and dark. Frequent stirring keeps them evenly soft and lightly browned without burning.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, pepper, butter. 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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