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 ↓
Fan Broiled Steak
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the steak
Wipe the steak on all sides with a cloth dampened with cold water.
Cook the steak
Heat a cast iron frying pan until almost red hot.
Rub the pan with suet.
Add the steak to the pan.
Cook the steak for 10 seconds on one side.
Turn the steak and cook the other side for 10 seconds.
Reduce the heat.
Cook slowly until the inside is pink, turning occasionally.
Test doneness by cutting into the meat near the bone.
Season and serve
Season with salt, pepper, and butter.
Serve immediately 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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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 cut that is seared quickly and then cooked gently to the desired doneness.
- Suet
- Rubbed over the hot pan to add a thin layer of fat that helps prevent sticking.
- Butter
- Added at the end to season the steak with richness and flavour.
The step that matters
Reducing the heat after the initial sear. A very hot pan browns the outside quickly, but if the heat stays high the outside overcooks before the inside reaches pink. Lowering the heat lets the centre cook evenly.
“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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