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Tenderloin Steaks with Olives

Tenderloin steaks sautéed, finished in sherry and espagnole sauce with olives.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 30,263 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Tenderloin Steaks with Olives

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the steaks

  1. Flatten the steaks.

  2. Trim excess fat and sinews.

  3. Season the steaks with salt and pepper.

  4. Heat the sweet oil in a skillet.

  5. Fry the steaks until slightly browned and rare.

  6. Remove the steaks from the skillet.

  7. Drain the oil from the skillet.

Make the sauce

  1. Add sherry wine, broth, and espagnole sauce to the skillet. Stir the mixture.

  2. Boil for 5 minutes.

  3. Stone the olives. Parboil the olives. Cool the olives. Drain the olives.

  4. Add the olives to the sauce. Boil for a few more minutes. Skim as needed.

  5. Return the steaks to the skillet. Add their juices to the sauce.

  6. Pour the sauce over the steaks. Serve.

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 + olivetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Wine + olivetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,415 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid hexyl ester (sweet, green).

  3. Sherry + olivetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together820 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  4. Pepper + sherrytop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  5. Pepper + winetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,066 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

Tenderloin steaks
Main protein; frying browns the surface and cooking to rare keeps the meat tender and juicy.
Sherry wine
Adds acidity and depth to the pan sauce as it reduces.
Espagnole sauce
Forms the rich, brown base of the sauce and gives it body.
Olives
Add briny, salty flavour and a contrasting texture to the sauce.

The step that matters

Fry the steaks until slightly browned and rare. Searing over high heat browns the surface for flavour, while stopping at rare keeps the interior tender; overcooking toughens the protein 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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