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 ↓
BeefSteak Cooked in a Frying-pan
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the steak
Grease a frying pan with a piece of fat and heat it over moderate heat.
Place the steak in the pan and brown it gradually, avoiding drying or burning.
Do not pierce the steak with a fork to keep the juices inside.
Check doneness by pressing; it should not feel spongy.
If the steak is lean, add a piece of butter on top while cooking.
Make the sauce
After cooking, pour ½ cup of water into the pan and stir.
Add 1 teaspoon of flour to thicken the sauce, along with 1 tablespoon of ketchup, and season with pepper and salt.
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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Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,971 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + ketchuptop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,435 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,847 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- Is the main protein that browns and cooks through in the pan.
- Flour
- Thickens the pan liquid into a sauce as it cooks.
- Ketchup
- Adds sweetness and acidity to the pan sauce.
- Butter
- Adds fat and flavour to a lean steak as it cooks.
The step that matters
Browning the steak gradually. Moderate heat browns the surface through the Maillard reaction while leaving the interior juicy. Too much heat dries or burns the outside before the centre is cooked, and piercing the meat lets juices escape.
“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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