Name: Broiled Beef Steak
Ingredients: 1 beef steak, about ¾ inch thick; flour for dredging; butter for seasoning; pepper to taste; coarse sea salt to taste; potatoes (baked or boiled) for serving; additional vegetables of choice for serving

Why it works: Beef and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,052 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Broiled Beef Steak

Ingredients

1 beef steak, about ¾ inch thick
flour for dredging
butter for seasoning
pepper to taste
coarse sea salt to taste
potatoes (baked or boiled) for serving
additional vegetables of choice for serving

Directions

Cook the steak

Prepare a clear fire and place the steak on the gridiron.
Dredge the steak lightly with flour.
Cook for 10 minutes for rare or 15 minutes for well done.

Season and serve

Dish the steak and season with butter, pepper, and salt.
Serve immediately with hot potatoes and any other vegetables.

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.

Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,052 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,456 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

Beef steak: Forms the main body of the dish; its thickness sets how long it needs to cook.
Flour: Lightly coats the surface, helping it brown and form a thin crust over the heat.
Butter: Added after cooking, it adds richness and moisture to the finished steak.

The step that matters

Cook for 10 minutes for rare or 15 minutes for well done. Cooking time decides the doneness of a steak about ¾ inch thick. Heat drives the proteins to firm up progressively, so a few extra minutes can move the centre from rare to well done. Checking the timing closely keeps the result as intended.