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Sirloin Steak

A thick sirloin steak seasoned with salt, pepper, butter, parsley, and onions, grilled over coals and finished in the oven.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Sirloin Steak

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Grill

  1. Preheat a double broiler and oil it well.

  2. Place the steak with the fat edge towards the handle over hot coals.

  3. Cook for about 10 minutes, turning every 10 seconds.

  4. After 40 seconds, move the steak farther from the coals.

  5. Remove the steak to a hot serving dish.

Finish and serve

  1. Dust with salt and pepper, spread lightly with butter, and sprinkle with parsley.

  2. Top with onions, cover, and let stand in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 3-4 minutes.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Sirloin steak
Provides the main meat, whose fat edge and thickness shape how it cooks over coals.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the surface of the hot steak.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma as they soften over the warm steak.

The step that matters

Turning the steak every 10 seconds over hot coals. Frequent turning over intense heat lets the surface brown without burning before the interior cooks through. Letting it sit still can scorch one side while the centre stays underdone.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, butter, parsley. 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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