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Spanish Beefsteak

A thin round steak wrapped in bacon, baked in milk and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pork and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,386 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓

Spanish Beefsteak

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the steak

  1. Pound the round steak until thin.

  2. Season both sides with coarse sea salt and Cayenne pepper.

  3. Cover the steak with a layer of thin slices of bacon or salt pork.

  4. Roll the steak and tie it with a cord.

Bake

  1. Pour ½ cup of milk and ½ cup of water around the steak in a covered baking dish.

  2. Cook for 2 hours, basting occasionally.

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. Pork + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,386 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  2. Pepper + porktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + milktop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26,984 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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 body of the dish, becoming tender with long, moist cooking.
Bacon or salt pork
Adds fat and savory flavor as it renders over the steak.
Milk
Forms a liquid in the dish that promotes gentle, moist cooking and a richer sauce.

The step that matters

Cook for 2 hours, basting occasionally. Round steak is lean and tough, so it needs long, low, moist cooking to break down its connective tissue. Basting keeps the surface moist so it does not dry out during the long bake.

“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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