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Planked Steak

A steak cooked on a heated plank with boiled vegetables and butter or marrow.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Peas and green beans share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 54 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Planked Steak

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. Grease a plank.

  3. Prepare the vegetables.

  4. Pare the potatoes.

  5. Scrape the carrots, shaping them into balls.

  6. Peel the small onion.

  7. Wash and peel the mushrooms.

Cook the vegetables

  1. Boil the potatoes and carrot balls in separate pots until tender.

  2. Boil the onion until tender.

  3. Drain the onion.

  4. Fry the onion.

  5. Cook the peas and green beans (or canned beans).

  6. Season the peas and green beans well.

Cook and serve the steak

  1. Pan‑broil the steak for 5 minutes on each side.

  2. Place the steak on the heated plank in the oven.

  3. Cook the steak for about 20 minutes.

  4. Place the mushrooms on top of the steak.

  5. Spread butter or marrow over the steak.

  6. Season the steak with salt and pepper.

  7. Arrange the cooked vegetables around the steak.

  8. Garnish with watercress.

  9. Serve immediately.

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. Peas + green beanstop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together54 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  3. Potato + carrottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  4. Potato + green beanstop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  5. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Porterhouse steak
Forms the main protein, browning on the surface while the interior cooks gently in the oven.
Butter or marrow
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour and helping the steak stay moist as it cooks.
Mushrooms
Release moisture and savoury flavour as they cook over the steak, adding a rich, earthy taste.
Potatoes
Provide starch that turns soft and filling when boiled until tender.

The step that matters

Pan-broil the steak before the oven. Searing the steak in a hot pan browns its surface and builds flavour. Finishing it gently in the oven then cooks the interior more evenly, so the outside is not overcooked before the centre is done.

Swap the green beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, mushroom, potato, carrot, onion, peas, pepper):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Green beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, mushroom, potato, carrot, onion, peas, pepper. 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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