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 ↓
Good Steak
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the steak
Remove the bone and most of the fat from the steak.
Place the steak on a heavy wooden block and pound it to ½ inch thick using an iron beater.
Use a large double bread toaster as a gridiron; adjust it to the desired thickness and place the steak inside.
Cook and serve
Cook over very hot coals for about 10 seconds to seal the surface.
Turn the steak and cook the other side until slightly browned.
Turn the first side and cook it the same way; the steak should be juicy and slightly red in the center.
Transfer the steak to a hot platter, season with salt and pepper, and place small pieces of butter on top.
Put the platter in the oven just long enough to melt the butter, then serve.
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.
-
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
- Porterhouse steak
- Forms the main body of the dish; its thickness and fat content shape juiciness and browning.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture as it melts over the hot steak.
The step that matters
Cook over very hot coals for about 10 seconds to seal the surface. Intense surface heat browns the outside quickly and keeps juices inside. If the heat is too low or the time too long, the steak can dry out and overcook before the center reaches the desired doneness.
“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.
You might also like
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipes
Yorkshire Pudding264 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.