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To Broil Beef-steaks

A method for broiling beef steaks over a hot gridiron.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 602 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

To Broil Beef-steaks

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Beat the steaks on both sides with a steak mallet or rolling pin if they are tough.

  2. Prepare a bed of clear, bright coals free from smoke and ashes.

  3. Set the gridiron over the coals at a slant to avoid smoking the meat.

  4. Rub the hot gridiron with suet and sprinkle a little salt over the coals.

  5. Rub a dish with a shallot or small onion and place it near the gridiron to heat.

Broil

  1. Lay the steaks on the gridiron and turn them frequently with tongs or a knife and fork.

  2. Broil for about 15 minutes, or 10-12 minutes for rare steaks.

  3. If the fat blazes, remove the gridiron momentarily until the blaze subsides.

  4. Cover the upper side of the steaks with an inverted plate to retain flavor.

  5. When turning the steak, drop any standing gravy into the heated dish.

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. Tarragon + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together602 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Mustard + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together859 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Mustard + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together901 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Garlic + shallottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,000 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Mustard + garlictop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef steaks
Provide the main meat, which browns on the gridiron and is tenderized by beating if tough.
Suet
Rubbed on the hot gridiron, its fat keeps the steaks from sticking and adds a little richness.
Coarse sea salt
Sprinkled over the coals to season the meat as smoke and heat rise around it.

The step that matters

Keep the fat from blazing. Dripping fat that flares up over hot coals can char the surface and leave smoky, bitter flavors, so the gridiron is lifted until the flame dies down.

Swap the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, mustard, tarragon, vinegar, shallot):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, mustard, tarragon, vinegar, shallot. 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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