Name: Flank Steak with Bloody Mary Tomato Salad
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 15 min
Yield: 4
Ingredients: FOR THE STEAK:; 2 pounds flank steak (or use steak of your choice); salt and freshly ground pepper; FOR THE SALAD:; 1/4 red onion, very thinly sliced; 1/4 cup olives, chopped + 2 tablespoons olive brine; 1 pint cherry tomatoes, cut in half; 2 stalks celery, sliced very thin and diagonally + handful of plucked celery leaves from the tops; 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce; 1/2 teaspoons prepared horseradish; Few shakes of Tabasco sauce; 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil; 1/2 teaspoon celery seeds; Freshly ground black pepper

Why it works: Pepper and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

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.

Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Celery + horseradishtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together835 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Onion + horseradishtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,784 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,518 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Olive + cherry tomatotop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together24 recipes

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

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

Swap the cherry tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, onion, olive, celery, sauce, horseradish):

Avocadofits better
Limefits better
Lemonfits better
Cherry tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, onion, olive, celery, sauce, horseradish. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Beef	100g cooked	250
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Cherry	1 cup (138g)	87
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Soy Sauce	1 tbsp (15ml)	9
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Celery Seed	1 stalk (40g)	6
Olive	1 large (4g)	4
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Salad	not in our table	0
Horseradish	not in our table	0
Sauce	not in our table	0

Flank Steak with Bloody Mary Tomato Salad