Why it works: Pepper and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 85,593 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Bbbp Steaks
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Scrape the sirloin steaks and wipe them with a clean cloth.
Heat the bars of your grill and grease them.
Grill and serve
Place the steaks over clear coals and turn them frequently using a dish to preserve the juices.
When done, season with salt and pepper, baste with butter, and add 2 tablespoons of water.
Serve hot.
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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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
- Fine sirloin steaks
- Forms the main body of the dish and is cooked directly over the coals.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture when basted over the cooked steaks.
The step that matters
Turning the steaks frequently over clear coals. Frequent turning promotes even cooking and limits overcharring on the surface, while using a dish rather than a fork helps keep the juices inside the meat rather than letting them run out.
“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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