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Planked Beefsteak

A steak served on a buttered plank with Duchess potatoes, sautéed mushrooms, tomatoes, and cucumber.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Planked Beefsteak

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the steak

  1. Wipe the steak and remove excess fat from it.

  2. Pan boil the steak for seven minutes.

Build the plank

  1. Butter a plank.

  2. Arrange a border of Duchess potatoes around the edge of the plank.

  3. Remove the steak to the plank.

Bake and garnish

  1. Bake in a hot oven (400°F) until cooked and potatoes are browned.

  2. Spread the steak with butter.

  3. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and parsley.

  4. Garnish the steak with sautéed mushroom caps and halved tomatoes.

  5. Add a slice of cucumber on top of each tomato.

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. Tomato + cucumbertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 recipes

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

  3. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  4. Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

  5. Mushroom + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,719 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Porterhouse or rump steak
Provides the main meat, which cooks through and browns on the surface.
Duchess potatoes
Form a starchy border that browns in the oven and frames the steak.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the steak and plank brown and taste savoury.
Mushroom caps
Add earthy flavour and a soft, moist texture as a garnish.

The step that matters

Pan boil the steak for seven minutes. Searing or boiling the steak before baking sets its surface, so juices stay inside and the meat doesn't dry out in the oven.

Swap the cucumber

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Cucumberthe original

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