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Beefsteak Smothered with Onions

A steak smothered in sautéed onions, seasoned with pepper and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pepper 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 Smothered with Onions

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the steak

  1. Broil the steak until cooked to your liking.

Cook the onions

  1. Heat drippings or butter in a skillet and add the chopped onions.

  2. Stir the onions until they are cooked through and avoid burning.

Assemble and serve

  1. Place the cooked onions on top of the steak on a hot plate.

  2. Cover with another hot plate for a few minutes to allow the steak to absorb the onion flavor.

  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. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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 and meaty base that the onion flavor is absorbed into.
Onions
Add sweetness and savory aroma as they cook, flavoring the steak.
Drippings or butter
Fat for cooking the onions, carrying flavor and helping them brown and soften.

The step that matters

Stir the onions until cooked through without burning. Onions contain sugars that caramelize and turn bitter or acrid if scorched, while undercooked onions stay sharp and raw-tasting. Steady stirring over moderate heat cooks them evenly and develops sweetness.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper. 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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