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Broiled Beefsteak

A thick beef steak is broiled and served with butter, coarse sea salt, and black pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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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 Beefsteak

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wipe the steak with a cloth dampened in cold water and trim off excess fat.

  2. Grease a wire broiler with some of the fat and place the steak in the broiler, fat edge facing the handle.

Broil and serve

  1. Broil over a clear fire, turning every ten seconds for the first minute to sear the surface and retain juices.

  2. After the first minute, turn occasionally until cooked to your liking: about 5 minutes for rare, 6 minutes for well done.

  3. Remove the steak to a hot platter, spread with butter, and sprinkle with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

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

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

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

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

  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

Beef steak
Provides the meat that is seared and cooked through over direct heat.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture when spread over the hot steak after cooking.

The step that matters

Turning during the first minute. Frequent early turning sears the surface quickly, which helps form a browned crust and seal in juices. Letting the steak sit still at the start can leave the surface less developed and let more juice escape.

“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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