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To Broil Beef Steaks

A method for broiling beef steaks with suet and pepper, served hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Ketchup and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,099 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

To Broil Beef Steaks

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Trim the steaks and divide them if very large.

  2. Preheat the gridiron until hot but not burning.

  3. Wipe the gridiron with fresh mutton suet.

  4. Lightly pepper the steaks; do not add salt yet.

Cook and serve

  1. Place the steaks on the gridiron and cook for 4 to 5 minutes on one side.

  2. Turn the steaks and cook for another 4 to 5 minutes, catching any juices in a dish.

  3. Serve immediately on hot plates.

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. Ketchup + saucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  3. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  4. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Beef steaks
Provide the meat that is seared and cooked through on the hot gridiron.
Fresh mutton suet
Coats the gridiron so the steaks do not stick and gain a little fat for flavour.

The step that matters

Preheating the gridiron until hot but not burning. A very hot surface sears the outside quickly, creating browning and flavour while keeping the inside juicy. If the gridiron is too cool, the steaks stick and steam; if it burns, the surface turns bitter before the meat is cooked.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, mutton, pepper, mushroom, ketchup, butter, sauce):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Tomatofits about as well
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, mutton, pepper, mushroom, ketchup, butter, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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