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Broiled Beefsteak

A steak cooked over hot coals and seasoned with salt, pepper, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Broiled Beefsteak

Ingredients

Directions

Cook

  1. Preheat a wire gridiron over hot coals.

  2. Place the steak on the gridiron and keep turning it from side to side until cooked.

Serve

  1. Once cooked, place the steak on a hot platter.

  2. Dress the steak with salt, pepper, and butter, and serve immediately.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  3. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Beef steak
Forms the main body of the dish and carries the flavour and texture of the meat.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture as it melts over the hot steak.

The step that matters

Keep turning the steak on the gridiron until cooked. Turning frequently over hot coals helps the steak cook evenly and prevents the outside from charring before the inside is done. Flipping often also keeps juices distributed through the meat.

“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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