Name: Roasted Beefsteaks
Ingredients: Tenderloin or porterhouse steaks; ½ cup butter; Salt; Pepper; Tomato sauce or ketchup

Why it works: Pepper and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Roasted Beefsteaks

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare a clear fire of coals for broiling.
Rub the gridiron with a little fat from the meat.
Place the steak on the gridiron without salting.
Broil gently until one side is done, then turn the steak.
Catch the blood as you turn it to enrich the gravy.
Mix pepper and salt into the butter.
Once the steak is done, place it on the seasoned butter.
Keep the steak hot until the butter melts, turning the steak in it a few times.
Combine the blood with the gravy and serve hot with tomato sauce or ketchup.

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.

Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Butter + tomatotop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,918 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).