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Broiled Beefsteak

A steak cooked under a broiler, seasoned with salt and pepper, and served with butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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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 Beefsteak

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Trim excess fat from the steak to prevent smoking.

  2. Grease the broiler with a little fat from the steak.

  3. Prepare a hot platter.

Cook and serve

  1. Place the steak in the center of the broiler.

  2. Hold each side over the coals to sear, then cook until done, turning constantly.

  3. Before removing the steak, sprinkle one side with salt and pepper.

  4. Place the steak on the platter with the seasoned side down, then season the other side.

  5. Top the steak with pieces of butter and serve immediately before the butter melts.

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. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Beefsteak
Provides the main protein; thickness controls how evenly it sears and stays juicy inside.
Butter
Adds richness and a melting layer of fat over the hot steak for flavour and moisture.

The step that matters

Searing each side, then turning constantly. Direct high heat browns the surface through the Maillard reaction, while constant turning keeps the steak from burning before the interior reaches the desired doneness.

“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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