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Broiled Beefsteaks or Rump-steaks

Broiled beefsteaks seasoned with salt, butter, and mushroom ketchup, cooked over a bright fire.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Broiled Beefsteaks or Rump-steaks

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Ensure the fire is bright, clear, and free from smoke.

  2. Sprinkle a little salt over the fire and preheat the gridiron for a few minutes.

  3. Rub the gridiron with fresh suet to prevent sticking.

  4. Cut the steaks to an even thickness of about ½ inch and level them gently with a rolling pin.

  5. Prepare a very hot dish with the ketchup and minced shallot if desired.

Broil and serve

  1. Turn the steaks frequently with steak tongs or a fork to prevent gravy from escaping.

  2. Broil the steaks for 8 to 10 minutes, depending on your preference for doneness.

  3. Rub the cooked steaks with butter and season with pepper and salt.

  4. Serve immediately to ensure they are 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 + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  2. Walnut + mushroomtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together763 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  3. Butter + walnuttop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Steaks
Form the main body of the dish, cooking to a juicy, browned exterior and tender interior.
Butter
Adds richness and a glossy finish to the cooked steaks.
Mushroom ketchup or harvey's sauce
Adds savory, tangy depth to the dish.

The step that matters

Turn the steaks frequently. Frequent turning on a hot grill spreads heat evenly and limits juice loss, so the meat cooks through without drying or losing its gravy.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Lima beansfits about as well
  2. Peasfits about as well
  3. Walnutthe original
  4. Sesamefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, mushroom. 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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