Why it works: Butter and pepper 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 ↓
Beefsteak Broiled
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare and cook
Butter the steak on both sides.
Broil the steak quickly over a clear fire.
Season with coarse sea salt and black pepper.
Serve
Place a piece of good butter on a plate.
Put the steak on top of the butter and serve immediately.
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.
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Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Steak
- Is the main cooked element, browning quickly over high heat to form a flavorful crust.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture, coating the steak and melting under it when served.
The step that matters
Broil the steak quickly over a clear fire. High, direct heat browns the surface quickly while keeping the inside tender. Slow cooking dries out the steak and can leave it grey and tough.
“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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