Why it works: Pepper and butter 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 ↓
Beef Steaks
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Pound the sirloin steaks.
Wash the sirloin steaks.
Grill
Place a gridiron over the fire until hot.
Put the steaks on the gridiron.
Cover the steaks.
Cook quickly, turning without piercing to retain juices.
Finish and serve
Place the cooked steaks on a heated dish.
Season the steaks with salt and pepper.
Baste the steaks with fresh butter.
Serve hot.
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.
-
Pepper + buttertop 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
- Sirloin steaks
- Forms the main body of the dish; cooking quickly over high heat keeps the meat tender and juicy.
- Fresh butter
- Adds richness and moisture when basted over the cooked steaks.
The step that matters
Turning without piercing. Piercing the steak lets juices escape, leaving the meat drier. Turning with tongs keeps the juices inside while the surface browns.
“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.
You might also like
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipes
Yorkshire Pudding264 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.