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 ↓
Broiled Beep Steak
Ingredients
Directions
Cook
Preheat your grill or broiler.
Cook the steak over clear coals for 10 minutes for rare doneness.
Serve
Transfer the steak to a warm dish.
Season with coarse sea salt, black pepper, and butter.
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 + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,971 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,847 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
-
Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Provides the main protein, which firms and browns as it cooks over direct heat.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture to the finished steak as it melts over the hot meat.
The step that matters
Cooking the steak for 10 minutes over clear coals. Timing controls doneness: the outside browns while the centre stays rare, and the meat keeps cooking briefly after it leaves the heat, so removing it on time 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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