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To Cook Steak

A steak seasoned with flour, butter, sea salt, and black pepper, cooked to desired doneness.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

To Cook Steak

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slash the steak on both sides with a sharp knife.

  2. Rub flour over the steak.

  3. Preheat your grill or cooking dish until piping hot.

Cook and season

  1. Cook the steak until done to your liking.

  2. After cooking, season with butter, coarse sea salt, and black pepper.

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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Steak
The main protein; slashing and cooking it set its final texture and doneness.
Flour
Dusted on the surface, it helps the steak brown and form a crust during cooking.
Butter
Added after cooking, it contributes richness and a silky, moist finish.

The step that matters

Preheat the grill or cooking dish until piping hot. A very hot surface sears the outside quickly, creating browning and flavour while keeping the inside juicier. A cool pan lets the steak steam and turn grey.

“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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