Skip to main content
Main

To Broil Steak

A steak broiled over a clear fire, served with a butter, lemon, salt, pepper, and parsley sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

To Broil Steak

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the steak

  1. Wipe the steak with a damp cloth and trim off excess fat.

  2. Rub a wire broiler or frying pan with a little of the fat.

Broil

  1. Place the steak in the broiler and broil over a clear fire, turning every 10 seconds for the first minute.

  2. After the first minute, turn occasionally until well cooked on both sides, about 5 to 8 minutes total.

Make the Maitre d'Hotel butter

  1. For the Maitre d'Hotel butter, cream the butter in a bowl.

  2. Gradually add the lemon juice, then mix in the salt, pepper, 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.

  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. Lemon + peppertop 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

Steak
Is the main cooked component, browned by high direct heat on the outside while staying juicy inside.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavor and giving the sauce a smooth, spreadable texture.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter and balances its heaviness.
Chopped parsley
Adds fresh, herbal aroma and a little color to the butter.

The step that matters

Turning the steak during the first minute. Turning every 10 seconds in the first minute exposes both faces to the intense heat evenly, helping form a browned crust without overcooking one side or leaving the surface pale.

“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 broiled steak recipes

Pan 5 See all 129 →

You might also like

Lemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipes