Why it works: Butter and pepper 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 ↓
Broiled Steak
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Prepare the steak as you would for roasting.
Heat the grill or gridiron.
Grill
Place the steak on the grill with the fat side facing the handle.
Hold the grill slanted over the coals.
Turn the steak often from side to side.
Finish and serve
Transfer the steak to a hot platter with butter, pepper, and a little salt. Press the butter and salt into the steak.
Cover with a hot lid or platter to draw the juices to the top.
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 + peppertop 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 cut of meat that is seared over the fire and served whole.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture to the hot steak as it melts into the surface.
The step that matters
Turn the steak often from side to side. Frequent turning over direct heat cooks the meat more evenly and helps prevent the outside from burning before the inside is done.
“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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