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Broiled Beefsteak

A steak cooked over hot coals, seasoned with salt and pepper, then finished with butter and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Broiled Beefsteak

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat your grill over hot coals.

  2. Grease the grill bars with butter before placing the steak on it.

  3. If the steak is tough, pound both sides with a steak mallet.

  4. For a delicious variation, pound the steak, season with salt and pepper, and dredge lightly with flour.

Cook and serve

  1. Cook the steak, turning it quickly until done.

  2. Remove the steak, spread thickly with butter, and serve hot.

  3. Place the steak on a baking sheet and bake in a hot oven (400°F/200°C) for 20 to 30 minutes.

  4. Transfer to a hot platter, spread with butter, and add a small piece of butter to the pan juices.

  5. Thicken the pan juices with a little flour, pour over the steak, and serve hot.

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Sirloin or porter-house steak
Provides the meat that is seared and cooked to be served.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and gives browning and flavour when spread on the hot steak.
Flour
Lightly coats the steak and thickens the pan juices into a sauce.

The step that matters

Cook the steak, turning it quickly until done. Turning often and watching closely keeps the outside browned while the inside cooks evenly. Overcooking dries out the meat and makes it tough, so checking doneness matters.

“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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