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Sump Steak Plain Broiled

A steak cooked on a gridiron, seasoned with salt and pepper, served with horseradish and sauces.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and horseradish are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,646 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Sump Steak Plain Broiled

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the steak to a thinner thickness than usual.

  2. Prepare a good clear fire and heat the gridiron.

Cook

  1. Place the steak on the gridiron and cook, stirring frequently with steak tongs.

  2. Cook for a few minutes, adjusting time to your taste.

Finish and serve

  1. Transfer the steak to a dish and rub butter all over it.

  2. Season with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

  3. Serve with horseradish on top and sauces on the side.

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. Pepper + horseradishtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,646 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Horseradish + saucetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together775 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + saucetop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,303 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Steak
Is the main protein, cooked directly over high heat to brown its surface.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the cooked surface of the steak.
Horseradish
Adds sharp, pungent heat that contrasts with the rich beef.

The step that matters

Cook for a few minutes, adjusting time to your taste. Steak continues to cook from residual heat after leaving the grill, so pulling it at the right moment controls doneness. Thin cuts cook quickly and can overcook in a short time.

Swap the horseradish

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper, sauce):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Horseradishthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, sauce. 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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