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To Broil Beef Steaks

Broiled beef steaks served hot with optional pickles, butter, and onion or shallot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

To Broil Beef Steaks

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the steaks from the small end of a spare rib or any tender piece.

  2. Flatten the steaks.

Cook

  1. Heat the gridiron until clear, then lay the steaks on it.

  2. Turn the steaks often until cooked to your liking.

Serve

  1. Place the cooked steaks in a dish and sprinkle pickles over them.

  2. Serve hot in a covered dish.

  3. Optionally, add a piece of butter on top or pour gravy with chopped onion or shallot over the steaks.

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. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Beef steaks
Provide the main protein, which browns and firms as it cooks over direct heat.
Pickles
Add sharp acidity that contrasts with the rich, savory beef.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, melting fat layer over the hot steaks.

The step that matters

Turn the steaks often until cooked to your liking. Frequent turning over direct heat cooks the steaks evenly and limits surface charring before the interior reaches the desired doneness. Flattening first also helps the thickness cook more uniformly.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter):

  1. Potatofits about as well
  2. Onionthe original
  3. Chivefits less well
  4. Tomatofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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