Skip to main content
Main

Fillet of Beef

A fillet of beef sliced and broiled, served with a sauce of egg yolks, butter, lemon, parsley, and optional milk or cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Fillet of Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Trim the fillet of beef, leaving ½ inch of fat on each side.

  2. Cut the beef into 6 slices, each ¼ inch thick, and shape them round.

Cook the beef

  1. Broil the slices on a gridiron over a sharp fire, seasoning with salt and black pepper.

  2. Turn the slices once or twice while broiling to keep the gravy in.

Make the sauce

  1. Combine egg yolks, butter, salt, black pepper, lemon juice, and parsley in a saucepan.

  2. Cook over low heat, stirring quickly until thickened.

  3. Remove from heat for 30 seconds while stirring, then return to heat until the butter melts and the sauce is smooth.

  4. If too thick, add a little milk or cream and adjust seasoning with more salt, pepper, and lemon juice.

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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

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 main meat, whose fat layer keeps the slices moist during broiling.
Egg yolks
Emulsify with the butter and thicken the sauce as they gently cook.
Butter
Enriches the sauce with fat, giving it a smooth, rich texture.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter and yolk sauce.

The step that matters

Keeping the sauce from scrambling. Egg yolks thicken over low heat but can curdle if they get too hot. Removing the pan from the heat while stirring lets the yolks thicken gently, and the butter melting back in keeps the sauce smooth.

“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.

More fillet of beef recipes

Braised 3 See all 5 →

You might also like

Lemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesRoast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCorned BeefCorned Beef87 recipes