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Broiled Steak, Sirloin or Porterhouse

A simple broiled steak seasoned with salt, pepper, and butter, served with cress and lemon slices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Broiled Steak, Sirloin or Porterhouse

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Trim off exposed edges and remove excess fat from the steak.

  2. Preheat the broiler and lightly grease it with a piece of fat on a fork.

Broil

  1. Place the steak on the broiler with the skin edge toward the handle.

  2. Open the chimney damper and hold the steak close to the clear red coals, turning every 10 seconds.

  3. After half the cooking time, raise the broiler to reduce the temperature and continue turning until cooked.

  4. For a 1-inch thick steak, broil for 4 minutes for rare, 6 minutes for medium, or 8 minutes for well-done.

  5. For a 2-inch thick steak, broil for 8 minutes for rare, 10-12 minutes for medium, or 14 minutes for well-done.

Serve

  1. Serve on a hot platter, garnished with cress and lemon slices.

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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  5. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Egg and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 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

Sirloin or porterhouse steak
Provides the meat that is cooked by direct radiant heat, browning on the surface while the inside stays juicy.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the finished steak, carrying flavour and aiding a glossy, tender surface.

The step that matters

Turning the steak close to the coals. Turning every 10 seconds keeps the surface from scorching before the centre cooks. Raising the broiler after half the time lowers the heat so the interior reaches the desired doneness without burning the outside.

“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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