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Citrus-Ginger Flat Iron Steak

"This mouth watering recipe marinates the flat iron in citrus juices and ginger to produces a juicy, memorable steak!"

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Why it works: Lime and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 1,621 recipes mention both. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

The recipe

4 servings
Prep20 min
Cook5 min

Ingredients

Contains: soy (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Whisk the lime juice, lemon juice, grapefruit juice, rice vinegar, olive oil, soy sauce, chili garlic sauce, honey, minced ginger, garlic salt, black pepper and ground cinnamon in a bowl until the honey dissolves.

  2. Place the flat iron steak in a resealable bag or shallow dish, pour in the marinade, turn to coat, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, turning occasionally.

  3. Remove the steak from the refrigerator 15 minutes before cooking, then pat it dry. Discard the used marinade.

  4. Heat a cast-iron skillet or grill over high heat until very hot, about 3 minutes.

  5. Cook the steak 2 to 3 minutes per side, until the thickest part reaches 145°F (63°C) on an instant-read thermometer.

  6. Transfer the steak to a cutting board and rest it for 3 minutes.

  7. Slice the steak thinly against the grain and serve.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Lime + gingertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,621 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Lime + lemontop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,289 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Lime + grapefruittop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together70 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  4. Olive + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together23,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Lemon + grapefruittop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together183 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the grapefruit

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lime, lemon, rice, vinegar, olive, sauce, garlic):

  1. Avocadobetter flavor fit
  2. Mangobetter flavor fit
  3. Orangebetter flavor fit
  4. Grapefruitthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lime, lemon, rice, vinegar, olive, sauce, garlic. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).