Name: Beef-steak
Ingredients: 1 steak; 1 tablespoon butter; 1 teaspoon chopped parsley; fried potatoes for serving

Why it works: Butter and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 28,563 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Beef-steak

Ingredients

1 steak
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon chopped parsley
fried potatoes for serving

Directions

Cook the steak using your preferred method until finished.
Place a lump of butter mixed with chopped parsley on top of the steak.
Serve with a border of fried potatoes around the steak.

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.

Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together28,563 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Butter + fried potatotop 40% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together0 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Parsley + fried potatotop 77% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together0 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Steak: Provides the main protein, whose cooking method sets its texture and browning.
Butter: Adds richness and fat that melts over the hot steak, carrying flavour across its surface.
Parsley: Contributes fresh, herbal aroma that brightens the rich butter.