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Broiled Beef Steak

A ¾‑inch thick beef steak cooked under a broiler, seasoned with salt, pepper, butter or sweet cream, and garnished with watercress or currant jam.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Broiled Beef Steak

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Beat the steak to tenderize it.

  2. Preheat a well‑greased broiler or gridiron over live coals.

Cook and serve

  1. Place the steak on the broiler.

  2. Cook for 10 minutes for rare or 15 minutes for well done.

  3. Transfer the steak to a hot platter.

  4. Season with salt, pepper, and butter or sweet cream.

  5. Garnish with watercress or currant jam.

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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  3. Pepper + watercresstop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together983 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  5. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 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 steak
Forms the main body of the dish; beating breaks up muscle fibers so it cooks more tender.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavor and moistening the surface of the cooked meat.
Sweet cream
Adds richness and moisture to the seasoning, softening the savory crust with a mild dairy sweetness.

The step that matters

Cooking time under the broiler. Meat continues to cook after it leaves the heat, and thickness and heat vary, so the timing decides between rare and well done. Checking early helps avoid drying the steak.

“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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