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
Wipe the steak with a damp cheesecloth.
Remove the bone and skewer the meat together.
Grease the broiler with some of the fat from the steak.
Broil
Place the meat on the broiler and broil under the gas flame.
Turn the steak every 10 seconds for the first 2-3 minutes to sear the surface.
Reduce the heat and turn occasionally until browned on both sides.
Cook 8-10 minutes for rare or 12-15 minutes for well done for 1-inch thick steaks.
For 2-2.5 inch thick steaks, cook 15-18 minutes for rare or 20 minutes for well done.
Serve
Remove the steak to a hot serving platter and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Spread with butter or Maitre d'Hotel Butter before serving.
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
- Provides the main protein; its thickness sets how long it needs to cook to the desired doneness.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, moist finish spread over the hot steak before serving.
The step that matters
Searing the surface in the first 2-3 minutes. Turning the steak every 10 seconds at the start helps build an even browned crust quickly under intense heat, while the inside cooks more gently. Letting one side sit too long can scorch it before the rest is seared.
“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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