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Beefsteak, Grilled

A steak grilled over a bright fire, seasoned with salt and pepper, served hot with butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and pepper 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 ↓

Beefsteak, Grilled

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fire and grill

  1. Prepare a clear, bright fire free from smoke and sprinkle a handful of salt on the fire to assist in clearing it.

  2. Heat the gridiron and rub the bars with paper, then with fat or suet to prevent sticking.

Grill the steak

  1. Brush the steak with salad oil or warm butter before grilling to keep in flavor.

  2. Grill the steak, turning frequently with steak tongs or a fork, avoiding piercing the meat.

  3. Cook until the outside is dark and the inside is red and juicy, about 10 to 15 minutes.

Serve

  1. Spread butter on the steak, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and serve on a hot dish.

  2. Garnish with watercress or horseradish if desired.

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. 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 meat that is seared on the outside while staying juicy inside.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor, and when brushed on before grilling helps keep the steak moist.

The step that matters

Grill the steak without piercing it. Piercing the meat lets juices escape, leaving it drier. Turning frequently with tongs or a fork keeps the surface from burning before the interior cooks through.

“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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