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To Broil Beef Steaks

Broiled beef steaks seasoned with pepper and optional mushroom catsup or butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,232 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

To Broil Beef Steaks

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Select steaks from the middle of a well-kept, finely grained, tender rump of beef.

  2. Trim and divide large steaks if necessary.

  3. Preheat the gridiron until hot but not burning.

  4. Wipe the gridiron with fresh mutton suet.

  5. Lightly pepper the steaks, but do not add salt yet.

Broil and serve

  1. Place the steaks on the gridiron and cook for 8 to 10 minutes, turning once.

  2. Catch any juices that drain from the steaks in a dish.

  3. Serve immediately on hot plates.

  4. Warm mushroom catsup in the serving dish.

  5. Place thin slices of fresh butter under 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 + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  2. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  4. Beef + muttontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef steaks
Tender rump cut that gives the main texture and flavour of the dish.
Fresh mutton suet
Greases the hot gridiron so the steaks do not stick and gain a little fat flavour.
Fresh butter
Melts under the hot steaks, adding richness and moisture to the meat.

The step that matters

Preheat the gridiron until hot but not burning. A very hot surface sears the outside quickly, browning the steak and sealing in juices. If it is too cool, the steak steams and turns grey, and if it burns, the outside chars before the inside cooks.

“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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