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Beef Suzette

Beef Suzetta is a dish of marinated beef fillets served with seasoned beans.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Beef Suzette

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Cut the beef into moderately thick slices, then cut the slices into neat square pieces.

  2. Marinate the meat in a pie dish with salad oil, vinegar, black pepper, bruised parsley, and lemon thyme for about 2 hours.

  3. Remove the meat and wipe it.

Cook the beef

  1. Cook quickly in a frying pan with hot dripping over high heat.

  2. Garnish the fillets with chopped parsley or horseradish.

  3. Place the fillets over fried potatoes or French beans.

Prepare and cook the beans

  1. For the beans, remove strings, cut into thin strips, and wash in cold water.

  2. Boil the beans in plenty of water with baking soda and salt for about 30 minutes.

  3. Drain the beans and dry on a cloth.

  4. Melt butter in a saucepan, then add the beans to the butter.

  5. Season with salt, pepper, sugar, and nutmeg; simmer for 5 minutes.

  6. Add chopped parsley and cook gently for another 5 minutes before serving.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 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

Fillet of beef or tender rump steak
Is the main protein; cooked quickly so it stays tender inside.
Salad oil
Carries the flavourings into the meat during marinating and helps keep its surface moist.
Vinegar
Acidity in the marinade gently tenderises the meat's surface fibres.
Baking soda
Raises the cooking water's pH, helping the beans soften and keep their colour.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that coats the beans and carries their seasoning.

The step that matters

Cook quickly in a frying pan with hot dripping over high heat. High heat sears the outside of the thin beef pieces to brown them quickly, while a short cook keeps the inside tender and juicy. Overcooking toughens the proteins and dries the meat.

“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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