Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
To Fry Steak
Ingredients
Directions
Sprinkle the steak with salt, pepper, and a little flour.
Heat a large skillet over high heat and add the butter.
Once the butter is melted, add the steak to the skillet.
Turn the steak frequently while cooking.
Make several openings in the steak to allow the butter to penetrate.
When cooked to your liking, transfer the steak to a hot platter 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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Tenderloin or porterhouse steak
- Provides the main protein, cooked by direct contact with hot fat.
- Flour
- Dusted on the steak to help form a light browned crust.
- Unsalted butter
- Serves as the frying fat, conducting heat and adding richness and flavor.
The step that matters
Turn the steak frequently while cooking. Frequent turning keeps the surface from scorching before the interior cooks, and it spreads heat evenly so the crust browns without burning. Butter can darken and burn quickly over high heat, so the cook must watch closely.
“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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