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To Broil a Beefsteak

A thick beefsteak broiled over a grill, seasoned with salt, pepper, and butter, served with optional potato and mushroom garnishes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and horseradish work together. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 171 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

To Broil a Beefsteak

Ingredients

Directions

Grill the steak

  1. Preheat a grill or prepare a clear coal fire.

  2. Lay the steak on the grill and sear one side.

  3. Turn the steak to sear the other side, preventing juice escape.

  4. If the steak burns, sprinkle ashes over the fire to reduce heat.

  5. Turn the steak often.

  6. Cook the steak to desired doneness.

  7. Once the steak is browned, place it on the platter to press out juice.

  8. Return the steak to the grill.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Heat a platter and place butter, salt, and pepper on it.

  2. Mix the gravy.

  3. Turn the steak in the gravy two or three times before serving.

  4. Serve immediately when cooked.

  5. Garnish with fried potatoes, potato balls, mushrooms, tomatoes, or horseradish if desired.

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. Potato + horseradishtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  4. Potato + mushroomtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together968 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Pepper + horseradishtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,646 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Beefsteak
Thick, tender cut that is the main component, browned on the outside while staying juicy inside.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavor, forming the gravy with the steak's juices on the platter.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the meat and helps draw out juices that form the gravy.

The step that matters

Turning the steak to sear the other side. Searing seals the surface and locks in juices, so turning carefully keeps juice from escaping. Resting the steak on the warm platter lets juices redistribute before serving.

Swap the potato

The recipe marks potato as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper, mushroom, horseradish):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, mushroom, horseradish. 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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