Why it works: Beef and shallot are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,103 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Beef Steaks
Ingredients
Directions
Grill
Preheat the grill until hot.
Place the steaks on the grill and turn them constantly to retain the juices.
Cook for about 10 minutes if the fire is good.
Serve
Lay minced shallot on a serving dish.
Place the cooked steaks on top of the shallot, sprinkling salt between each steak.
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.
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Beef + shallottop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,103 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Thick beef steaks
- Provide the main meat, whose fat and juices give the dish its flavor and tenderness.
- Minced shallot
- Adds a sharp, aromatic onion flavor that contrasts with the rich beef.
The step that matters
Preheat the grill until hot. A very hot grill sears the surface of the steaks quickly, browning them and sealing in juices. If the grill is not hot enough, the steaks steam and cook grey, and the timing in the recipe will not work as intended.
“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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