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French Beefsteak

A thick fillet steak grilled and served with a parsley butter sauce.

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 ↓

French Beefsteak

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the steak

  1. Cut the steak from a fillet of beef.

  2. Dip the steak into melted butter.

Cook and season

  1. Heat a grill and broil the steak over hot coals.

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

Make the parsley butter and serve

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

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

  3. Dip each steak into the butter.

  4. Turn the steaks over.

  5. Arrange them around the dish.

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

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

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

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

  4. Beef + parsleytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,866 recipes

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

  5. Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Fillet of beef
Provides the tender, rich meat that is the main component of the dish.
Melted butter
Adds fat and moisture that coats the steak and helps it brown.
Softened butter
Creams with the parsley to form a spreadable sauce that adds richness.
Chopped parsley
Adds fresh, herbal aroma to the parsley butter.

The step that matters

When nearly done, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Salt added late stays on the surface rather than drawing moisture out of the meat for long before cooking. Seasoning near the end also keeps pepper from scorching over hot coals.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Tarragonfits less well
  4. Sagefits less well

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