Why it works: Pepper and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 85,593 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
How to Broil a Steak
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wipe the steak with a wet cloth; do not wash it.
Heat the broiler and wipe it with a clean cloth.
Rub the bars of the broiler with suet to prevent sticking.
Broil and serve
Place the steak in the broiler and watch it closely to avoid burning.
Cook one side until nicely browned, then turn it over.
Turn the steak once more on each side, for a total of two turns per side.
Season with coarse sea salt and black pepper.
Pour a little melted butter on top before serving.
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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Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Steak
- Is the main protein that browns and cooks through under the broiler's direct heat.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat and richness to the finished steak on top.
The step that matters
Watch the steak closely under the broiler. Broiler heat is intense and close to the meat, so surface sugars and proteins can burn before the inside cooks. Watching closely and turning at the right moments gives even browning without charring.
“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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