Why it works: Butter and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,847 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓
Beef Steak and Mutton Chops
Ingredients
Directions
Place a wire drainer in a tin pan and add a little butter to the pan.
Place thick slices of meat on the drainer.
Cook according to the thickness of the meat.
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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Butter + beeftop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,847 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Beef steak or mutton chops
- Provides the main protein, which browns and firms as it cooks.
- Butter
- Adds fat that helps conduct heat and gives the meat a richer, browned surface.
The step that matters
Cook according to the thickness of the meat. Thick cuts need longer for the centre to reach a safe, even doneness while the outside browns. Judging by thickness rather than time keeps the meat from being overcooked outside or underdone inside.
“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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