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 ↓
Broiled Steak
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Trim excess fat from the steak and wipe it with a damp cloth.
Place the steak on a broiler.
Cook and serve
Broil over the coals for 5-7 minutes, turning frequently at first, then every 20 seconds.
Transfer the steak to a hot platter.
Sprinkle with coarse sea salt and black pepper.
Add butter and serve immediately.
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; its fat and muscle set the texture and juiciness once cooked.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness to the finished steak, carrying flavour across the surface.
The step that matters
Turning the steak during broiling. Turning frequently at first and then every 20 seconds keeps the surface from scorching before the interior cooks. Frequent turns also help the steak brown evenly over the heat.
“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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