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Broiled Beefsteak

A thick steak cooked on a greased gridiron, served with butter, salt, pepper, and fried potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Broiled Beefsteak

Ingredients

Directions

Grill the steak

  1. Grease a gridiron with butter or beef suet and place it over hot coals.

  2. Lay the steak on the gridiron and cook one side until done.

  3. Transfer the steak to a warmed platter with a little butter, cooked side down, to collect juices.

  4. Return the steak to the gridiron and cook the other side to your liking.

Finish and serve

  1. Once cooked, place the steak back on the platter, spread lightly with butter, and season with salt and pepper.

  2. Keep warm over boiling steam for a few moments without letting the butter become oily.

  3. Serve on hot plates, garnished with fried sliced potatoes or browned potato balls.

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 + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  2. Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + peppertop 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

Steak
Forms the main body of the dish; its thickness and tenderness set how juicy the finished cut is.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the surface and helps keep the cooked steak from drying.

The step that matters

Keep the steak warm over steam without letting the butter turn oily. Gentle heat keeps the butter spread and the meat juicy. Overheating the butter separates its fat and water, leaving the surface greasy rather than glossy.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Carrotfits less well
  4. Onionfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against 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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