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Beef Steak

Thinly sliced beef steak grilled over coals, seasoned with salt and pepper, served hot with butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beef Steak

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the steak into thin slices.

  2. Preheat the grill over moderately hot coals.

Grill and serve

  1. Place the steak on the grill and turn it every minute.

  2. Broil the steak for about seven minutes.

  3. Serve on a hot dish, sprinkling with salt and pepper.

  4. Top with small pieces of butter and cover to keep warm.

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. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  2. Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  3. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Beef steak
Provides the main protein; its thin slices cook quickly and stay tender when grilled briefly.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture as it melts over the hot steak.

The step that matters

Turning the steak every minute. Frequent turning over moderately hot coals cooks the slices evenly and helps prevent the outside from scorching before the inside is done.

“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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