Name: Grilled Peppery Rib-Eye Steaks with Roquefort Butter
Ingredients: 2 oz. Roquefort, Gorgonzola or other; blue-veined cheese; 4 Tbs. (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, at room; temperature; 1/2 Tbs. cognac (optional); 1/2 tsp. freshly ground pepper; 2 tsp. finely minced garlic; 1 1/2 tsp. coarsely ground pepper; 2 Tbs. olive oil; 4 well-marbled rib-eye, porterhouse or New York; strip steaks, each 8 to 10 oz. and 1 inch thick

Why it works: Garlic and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 25,665 recipes mention both. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Garlic + olivetop 2% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together25,665 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Pepper + garlictop 8% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together27,090 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together7,962 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Pepper + olivetop 11% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together30,263 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Cheese + olivetop 11% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together3,802 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cheese, butter, pepper, olive):

Thymebetter flavor fit
Parsleyabout as good a flavor fit
Rosemaryabout as good a flavor fit
Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, butter, pepper, olive. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

Grilled Peppery Rib-Eye Steaks with Roquefort Butter