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French Beefsteak

A thick beef steak served with a parsley butter sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

French Beefsteak

Ingredients

Directions

Grill the steak

  1. Dip the steak into melted butter.

  2. Lay the steak on a heated grill and broil over hot coals.

  3. When nearly done, sprinkle with pepper and salt.

Make the parsley butter

  1. Mix chopped parsley with softened butter to a cream.

  2. Pour the parsley butter into the center of a serving dish.

Serve

  1. Dip each steak into the butter.

  2. Turn the steaks over.

  3. Arrange them on the platter.

  4. Squeeze a few drops of lemon over the steaks.

  5. Serve hot.

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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

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

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

  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

Fillet steak
Provides the main meat, cooked quickly over high heat for a tender, browned result.
Melted butter
Coats the steak to add richness and help it brown on the grill.
Softened butter
Forms a creamy base for the parsley butter that melts over the hot steak.
Parsley
Adds fresh, herbal aroma to the butter that is served with the steak.

The step that matters

Broil over hot coals. High, direct heat sears the surface quickly. Too little heat leaves the steak grey and dry, while removing it too late can overcook the interior.

“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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