Why it works: Shallot and horseradish match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 376 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Beef Steaks Broiled
Ingredients
Directions
Ensure the fire is clear and not dull or smoky.
Clean the gridiron and rub it with suet.
Place the steaks on the gridiron and brown them, turning often to preserve the juices.
Once done, rub the steaks with fresh butter and season with pepper and coarse sea salt.
Sprinkle finely chopped shallot or onion on top.
Serve with oyster sauce, cooked greens, and boiled potatoes.
Garnish with scraped horseradish if desired.
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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Shallot + horseradishtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together376 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Potato + horseradishtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together171 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Shallot + potatotop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together272 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,305 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pepper + horseradishtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,646 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper, shallot, oyster, sauce, horseradish):
- Mustardfits better
- Chivefits better
- Welsh onionfits better
- Potatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, shallot, oyster, sauce, horseradish. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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