Why it works: Pepper and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 85,593 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Beef Steaks
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Pound and wash the sirloin steaks.
Heat a grill over the fire.
Grill and serve
Place the steaks on the grill and cover them.
Cook quickly, turning without piercing to retain juices.
Once cooked, place on a heated dish.
Season with salt and pepper, and baste with fresh butter.
Serve hot.
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 + buttertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Sirloin steaks
- Provide the main meat, which is cooked over direct heat and eaten hot.
- Fresh butter
- Adds richness and moisture when basted over the cooked steaks.
The step that matters
Cook quickly, turning without piercing to retain juices. Piercing the steak lets juices escape, leaving it drier. Turning with tongs keeps the surface intact so juices stay inside while the outside browns over high heat.
“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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