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Beefsteak

A grilled steak seasoned with butter, pepper, salt, lemon juice, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley 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 ↓

Beefsteak

Ingredients

Directions

Grill

  1. Grease a grill and heat it until hot.

  2. Place the steak over the hot fire and cover with a baking pan.

  3. Turn the steak as soon as it is colored, and watch constantly.

  4. Turn again as soon as it is browned; it should be rare or pink in the center.

Finish and serve

  1. Transfer to a hot platter, sprinkle with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  2. Spread butter over the steak and serve immediately.

  3. For added flavor, drizzle with lemon juice and sprinkle with chopped parsley before serving.

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

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

  5. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Porter house or tenderloin steak
Provides the main protein, cooked quickly over high heat to brown the outside while staying pink inside.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, moist finish over the hot steak.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, savory beef flavor.

The step that matters

Turn the steak as soon as it is colored. Turning at the right moment builds a browned crust without overcooking the center. Watching closely prevents the steak from charring on the outside before the inside reaches rare or pink.

“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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