Skip to main content
Main

To Broil Beef Steaks

Broiled beef steaks seasoned with pepper and optional mushroom catsup and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Beef and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,232 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

To Broil Beef Steaks

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Select steaks from the middle of a well‑kept, finely grained, tender rump of beef.

  2. Trim the steaks and divide them if they are very large.

  3. Preheat the gridiron until hot but not burning, then wipe it with fresh mutton suet.

  4. Lightly pepper the steaks, but do not season with salt yet.

Broil and serve

  1. Place the steaks on the gridiron and cook for 8 to 10 minutes, turning them halfway through.

  2. Catch any juices that drain from the steaks in a dish.

  3. Serve immediately on hot plates.

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 + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

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

  2. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Beef + muttontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef steaks
Tender, finely grained rump meat forms the main body of the dish and is cooked directly over the heat.
Fresh mutton suet
Wiped on the hot gridiron to coat it with fat, helping keep the steaks from sticking.

The step that matters

Preheating the gridiron. The grill must be hot but not burning so the steak surface sears quickly and releases cleanly. A cool grill lets the meat stick and steam, while an overheated one can scorch the outside before the inside cooks.

“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.

You might also like

Beef, Mutton, or Veal BrothBeef, Mutton, or Veal Broth6 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesRoast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipes