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 ↓
Rump Steak
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut a 1½‑inch thick steak from a well‑hung rump of beef.
Beat the steak well.
Cook
Place it on a wire gridiron and broil over a clear fire for 5 minutes.
Turn the steak and broil the other side.
Season with coarse sea salt and black pepper.
Serve
Serve on a very hot dish with a small pat of butter on top.
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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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
- Rump steak
- Forms the main body of the dish and supplies the meat that is cooked and eaten.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a little moisture when it melts over the hot steak.
The step that matters
Broil the steak over a clear, hot fire. Searing the surface with strong direct heat browns it and builds flavour, while the inside stays juicier than it would with slow cooking. A clear fire gives steady heat, so the steak cooks evenly rather than charring in patches.
“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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