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Beef Steaks Broiled

Broiled beef steaks served with butter, sliced shallot or onion, and optional mushroom ketchup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,982 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Beef Steaks Broiled

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Preheat the grill over a clear fire.

  2. Beat the steaks with a rolling pin.

  3. Grease the grill with suet and place the steaks on it.

Cook and serve

  1. Broil the steaks, turning often until they begin to brown.

  2. Transfer the steaks to a hot dish with a bit of butter underneath.

  3. Top with sliced shallot or onion, and drizzle with mushroom ketchup if desired.

  4. Season with salt and pepper before serving.

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. Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

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

  4. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  5. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef steaks
Main protein; browns and cooks through under direct heat from the grill.
Suet
Fat that greases the grill so the steaks do not stick and gain a little flavour.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the hot dish the steaks rest on.
Shallot or onion
Adds sharp, savoury aroma and sweetness when placed on the hot steaks.

The step that matters

Broiling and turning the steaks. Turning often keeps the surface from burning before the inside cooks, and the browning comes from the Maillard reaction, which needs high heat and a dry surface. Steaks that are too wet or cooked too slowly will steam and turn grey instead of browning.

Swap the shallot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, mushroom, ketchup, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits about as well
  3. Onionfits about as well
  4. Shallotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, mushroom, ketchup, 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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