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Stuffed Beefsteak

Stuffed beefsteak filled with bread crumbs, butter, herbs, and onions, simmered in broth until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,979 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Stuffed Beefsteak

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stuffing

  1. Trim and wipe the beefsteak.

  2. Melt the butter and pour it over the bread crumbs.

  3. Add onion juice, marjoram, salt, pepper, and parsley; stir well.

  4. Spread the mixture over the steak, roll it tightly, and tie with twine.

Brown and simmer

  1. Heat the drippings in a saucepan.

  2. Dredge the meat in flour and brown it on all sides in the hot fat.

  3. Pour in enough boiling water to cover the meat, add bay leaf, cloves, and sliced onion.

  4. Simmer for about 1 ½ hours, or until the meat is tender.

  5. Add salt and pepper halfway through cooking.

Make the sauce

  1. Remove the meat, keep warm, and strain the cooking liquid.

  2. Measure the liquid; if less than 1 cup, add boiling water.

  3. Bring the strained liquid to a boil for the sauce.

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. Marjoram + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Marjoram + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  4. Marjoram + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Beefsteak
Forms the main body of the dish and becomes tender through slow simmering.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the melted butter and seasonings to form a moist, savoury stuffing.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the bread crumb stuffing.
Flour (in the method)
Dredging the meat helps it brown and lightly thickens the cooking liquid.
Drippings or other fat
Carries the heat for browning the meat, building surface colour and flavour.

The step that matters

Brown the meat on all sides. Searing in hot fat develops browned flavour and colour through the Maillard reaction. Pale, under-browned meat tastes flatter, and the surface should be dry and hot before it goes in so it browns rather than steams.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, marjoram, pepper, parsley, clove. 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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