Why it works: Pepper and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Beef Steaks
Ingredients
Directions
Broil the steaks
Rub the broiler bars with a bit of fat.
Lay the steaks on the broiler bars.
Broil over clear coals for 6 minutes for rare or 8 minutes for well done.
Place the steaks on a hot dish.
Season the steaks with butter and salt.
Make the sauce
Heat 1 tablespoon of butter or pork fat in a frying pan.
Cook the steaks in the pan for 8 minutes.
Remove the steaks from the pan.
Add 1 tablespoon of butter and ½ tablespoon of flour to the pan. Stir the mixture until smooth and brown.
Add ½ cup of cold water to the pan while stirring continuously.
Season the sauce with ½ teaspoon of salt and pepper.
Pour the sauce over the steaks.
Serve immediately.
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.
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Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,923 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,448 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,971 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,847 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Beef steaks
- Provide the main protein, cooked by direct heat until browned and done to the chosen doneness.
- Flour
- Combines with melted butter to form a roux that thickens the pan sauce.
- Butter
- Adds richness and flavor to the seasoning and to the roux-based sauce.
The step that matters
Stirring the flour into the butter and adding the cold water. Cooking the flour in fat until smooth and brown builds a roux, and adding cold liquid while stirring continuously prevents lumps so the sauce thickens evenly.
Swap the tomato
The recipe marks tomato as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, flour, pepper):
- Potatofits better
- Chivefits better
- Leekfits better
- Tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, flour, 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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