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Broiled Beef Steak

A steak rubbed with olive oil, broiled, seasoned, and served with butter and water, garnished with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Broiled Beef Steak

Ingredients

Directions

Broil the steak

  1. Rub the steak with olive oil.

  2. Place the steak in a hot broiler, turning constantly.

  3. Once broiled, season with salt and pepper.

Prepare and serve

  1. Warm the serving dish.

  2. Add butter and boiling water to the dish.

  3. Transfer the steak to the dish and press it.

  4. Garnish with chopped parsley on top.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Olive + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,649 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Olive + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Olive + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,887 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Steak
Is the main protein; turning it under high heat browns the outside while the inside stays juicy.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavor and coats the steak in the serving dish.
Olive oil
Coats the surface so the steak browns evenly under the broiler and does not dry out.

The step that matters

Turning the steak constantly under the broiler. Constant turning keeps the surface from scorching before the inside is cooked. Browning depends on high surface heat, so uneven turning can char one side while the other stays pale.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Rosemaryfits less well
  4. Garlicfits less well

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