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One Meal Steak

A thick steak baked with vegetables, tomatoes, and spices, finished with a breadcrumb topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

One Meal Steak

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 steak

  1. Trim excess fat from the steak and hack it both ways against the grain to a depth of about ⅛ inch.

  2. Spread butter on both sides of the steak and roll it in flour.

  3. Place the steak in a skillet or Dutch oven, shaping it into a rounded form.

Bake and brown

  1. Top the steak with chopped green pepper, celery, onion, and potato.

  2. Cover tightly and simmer in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 45 to 60 minutes until vegetables are tender.

  3. Remove from the oven, season with salt and pepper.

  4. Mix tomatoes, flour, cayenne pepper, and bread crumbs; spread over the steak.

  5. Return to the oven and cook for an additional 15 to 20 minutes until browned.

Serve

  1. Serve the steak on a platter with French fried potatoes arranged around it and garnish with parsley.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

  5. Celery + potatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Steak
Provides the main protein; hacking across the grain tenderises the meat as it cooks.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the flour coating brown and carry flavour.
Flour
Coats the steak and thickens the juices, giving a light crust and body to the sauce.
Tomatoes
Add moisture and acidity, forming a sauce that bakes over the vegetables.
Bread crumbs
Form a topping that browns in the oven and adds texture.
Potato
Softens during the covered simmer and adds starch and body to the dish.

The step that matters

Cover tightly and simmer until vegetables are tender. A tight cover traps steam so the steak and vegetables cook gently in their own moisture. Lifting the lid early lets moisture escape, which can leave the vegetables firm and the meat drier.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, pepper, celery, potato, tomato, bread. 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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