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Beef Steaks

Beef steaks cooked on a gridiron, broiled, topped with butter, salt, pepper, and served with a shallot-water mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Beef Steaks

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Rub the gridiron with beef suet and heat it until clear.

Cook and serve

  1. Place the steaks on the hot gridiron and broil until they begin to brown.

  2. Turn the steaks and broil the other side until brown.

  3. Transfer the steaks to a hot dish and top with a slice of butter, sprinkling with salt and pepper.

  4. Let the steaks rest for 2-3 minutes.

  5. Slice the shallot thinly and soak it in the tablespoon of water.

  6. Return the steaks to the gridiron, turning until cooked to your liking.

  7. Serve the steaks on a dish, pouring the shallot and water mixture over them.

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. Pepper + shallottop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,898 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Beef + shallottop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,103 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

  5. Butter + shallottop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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 meat, which browns on the hot gridiron to develop savoury flavour.
Beef suet
Greases the gridiron so the steaks do not stick and the surface can brown.
Butter
Melts over the hot steaks, adding richness and fat to the surface.
Shallot
Soaked in water, it gives a mild, sharp onion flavour to the serving liquid.

The step that matters

Returning the steaks to the gridiron. Browning relies on a very hot, dry surface, and turning the steaks too often or cooking them too long can leave them overcooked or grey inside before a good crust forms.

Swap the shallot

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Onionfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Shallotthe original

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