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 ↓
Beefsteak
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Prepare a bright charcoal fire.
Season the steak with coarse sea salt and black pepper to taste.
Cook and serve
Broil the steak to your preferred doneness, either rare or well done.
Just before serving, add butter on top of the steak.
Garnish with parsley.
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.
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Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together28,563 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Beefsteak
- The main cut supplies the meat, its fat and its savory, beefy flavour.
- Butter
- Melts over the hot steak, adding richness, moisture and a glossy fat-based flavour.
The step that matters
Broiling to doneness. Meat keeps cooking briefly after it leaves the heat, and the interior sets the doneness. Removing it a little early keeps it juicier and prevents it from drying out.
“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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