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 ↓
Round Steak
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Wipe the steak and trim excess fat from it.
Heat an iron frying pan until very hot, then lightly grease the pan.
Cook
Place the steak in the pan and cook it for 1 minute.
Turn the steak and brown the other side.
Half cover the steak with boiling water and cover the frying pan tightly.
Let it simmer for 20 to 30 minutes, then uncover the pan.
Finish and serve
Season the steak with butter, salt, and pepper.
Serve on a hot platter.
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
- Round steak
- Lean, tough cut that becomes tender when simmered slowly in liquid after searing.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth finish to the seared, simmered steak.
The step that matters
Brown the steak before simmering. Searing the surface in a very hot pan creates browned flavour through the Maillard reaction, which the later simmering in water cannot produce on its own.
“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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