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Grilled Steak and Olives

A grilled steak served with olives that have been pounded with butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Olive and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 30,263 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Grilled Steak and Olives

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the steak

  1. Cut the steak to ½ inch thick, either in pieces or left whole.

  2. Melt half the butter and dip the steak in the melted butter on both sides.

Grill the steak

  1. Heat a grill and rub the grill bars with a bit of suet.

  2. Place the steak on the grill over a hot fire for 8 minutes, turning the steak every minute.

  3. Remove the steak when it is slightly undercooked and place it on a hot dish.

  4. Sprinkle the steak with pepper and salt, then add a small bit of the remaining butter on top.

Prepare the olives and serve

  1. Stone the olives by making an incision with a sharp knife and cutting around the stone.

  2. Soak the olives in water for 1 hour to remove excess salt.

  3. Chop the olives, then parboil them in stock for about 20 minutes.

  4. Drain the olives and pound them with the remaining butter.

  5. Place the pounded olives on top of the steak.

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. Olive + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Olive + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,887 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Butter + peppertop 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

Steak
Provides the main protein, which firms and browns as it is seared over the fire.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and helps the steak brown as it is dipped and cooked.
Olives
Contribute a salty, briny flavour and a soft texture once chopped and pounded.

The step that matters

Remove the steak when slightly undercooked. Meat keeps cooking from its own residual heat after leaving the grill, so pulling it early helps prevent it from becoming dry and tough.

“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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