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Beefsteak, with Potatoes

A dish of sliced beefsteak seasoned with pepper and salt, broiled, served with fried potatoes and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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, with Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the steak

  1. Cut the steaks into thin slices and season with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  2. Dip the slices into melted butter.

Cook and serve

  1. Broil the slices until done.

  2. Place the cooked steaks in a dish near the fire.

  3. Fry the potatoes until they are a fine brown color.

  4. Serve the steaks with a mixture of finely chopped parsley, a small piece of butter, pepper, and salt underneath.

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

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

  2. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 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

Steaks
Provide the main meat, which is sliced thin and cooked by broiling.
Potatoes
Fry to a golden brown, adding a crisp, browned texture alongside the steak.
Melted butter
Coats the slices, adding richness and moisture during cooking.
Butter
Melts under the steak as a small finishing portion, adding richness and flavor.

The step that matters

Broil the slices until done. Thin slices cook quickly and can dry out or overcook in moments. Watching closely keeps them tender and juicy while the surface browns.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, butter, parsley):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Shallotfits about as well
  3. Potatothe original
  4. Capsicumfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, butter, parsley. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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