Name: Beefsteak in Oyster Blanket
Ingredients: 1 porterhouse steak (1.5 inches thick); 1 lemon; Coarse sea salt; Black pepper; Select oysters; Butter; Chopped parsley

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 in Oyster Blanket

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.

Remove the bone from the steak and wipe it with a wet cloth.
Rub the steak with lemon juice.
Grease a wire broiler with trimmed fat and place the steak in it.
Broil the steak over a very hot fire to sear the surface and prevent juices from escaping.
Turn the steak occasionally until cooked on both sides.
Transfer the steak to a baking pan and cover it with oysters.
Dot the oysters with butter and squeeze the juice of half a lemon over them.
Place the pan in a hot oven (400°F / 200°C) and cook until the oysters plump and the edges curl.
Season with salt and pepper, and serve with melted butter, lemon juice, and chopped parsley.

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.

Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,184 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together28,563 recipes

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