Skip to main content
Main

Beef Steak

Beef steak cooked on a grill or broiler, seasoned with butter, salt, pepper, and ketchup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Beef Steak

Ingredients

Directions

Grill the steak

  1. Preheat your grill or broiler to a high heat.

  2. Place the steak in front of the heat source, not on top.

  3. Cook a half-inch thick steak for 10 minutes and a one-inch thick steak for 15 minutes.

  4. Do not use a fork to turn the steak or salt it while cooking.

Finish and serve

  1. Once cooked, place the steak on a hot dish and add butter to both sides.

  2. Season with coarse sea salt and black pepper to taste.

  3. For added flavor, mix a little tomato ketchup into the gravy.

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 + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

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

  3. Butter + tomatotop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,918 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + ketchuptop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together754 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Butter + ketchuptop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Rump or sirloin steak
Provides the main meat, which firms and browns over high heat.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture when melted over the hot steak.
Tomato ketchup
Adds sweetness and acidity to the gravy.

The step that matters

Do not use a fork to turn the steak. Piercing the meat lets juices escape, which leaves the steak drier. Turning it with tongs keeps the juices inside.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper, ketchup):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Shallotfits about as well
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, ketchup. 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.

More beef steak recipes

Pie 87Pudding 24Broiled 20Stuffed 11Roast 10Stewed 9 See all 13 →

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesTomato BisqueTomato Bisque61 recipesCream Tomato SoupCream Tomato Soup28 recipes