Skip to main content
Main

To Broil Beef Steaks

Broiled beef steaks seasoned with pepper and suet, cooked over a hot gridiron.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

To Broil Beef Steaks

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

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

  2. Trim the steaks neatly and divide if very large.

  3. Prepare a strong, clear fire and heat the gridiron until hot but not burning.

  4. Wipe the gridiron with fresh mutton suet.

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

Broil

  1. Place the steaks on the gridiron and cook until done on one side, then turn them to cook the other side.

  2. Catch any gravy in the dish for serving.

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

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

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

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

  3. Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 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

Beef steaks
Provide the meat, whose fat and proteins brown on the hot gridiron and give flavour and tenderness.
Fresh mutton suet
Coats the gridiron to prevent sticking and adds fat that carries flavour to the meat.

The step that matters

Heat the gridiron until hot but not burning. A very hot, clean surface sears the steak quickly, forming a browned crust that seals in juices. If the gridiron is too cool, the steak steams and sticks; if it burns, the surface turns bitter.

“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.

You might also like

Beef, Mutton, or Veal BrothBeef, Mutton, or Veal Broth6 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesRoast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipes