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Beef. Beef Steaks Broiled.

Broiled beef steaks seasoned with pepper, salt, and a butter‑parsley‑lemon mixture, served with fried potato slices, pickled cucumber, and cresses.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon 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 ↓

Beef. Beef Steaks Broiled.

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the beef steaks rather thick, about ½ inch.

  2. Beat the steaks well with a rolling pin.

  3. Season the steaks with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  4. Prepare a mixture of fresh butter, chopped parsley, and lemon juice.

  5. Heat a dish and place the butter mixture in it.

Broil and serve

  1. Broil the steaks on a clean gridiron over a brisk fire, turning often.

  2. Once cooked, lay the steaks in the hot dish and rub a bit of butter over them.

  3. Garnish with fried potato slices, pickled cucumber, and cresses, or serve with anchovy sauce if desired.

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

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

  2. Parsley + peppertop 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. Parsley + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  5. Parsley + cucumbertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,564 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

Beef steaks
Forms the main body of the dish and is cooked directly over high heat.
Fresh butter
Adds richness and moisture, carrying the parsley and lemon flavour over the meat.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter and beef flavour.

The step that matters

Broiling the steaks over a brisk fire. Turning often over a hot, brisk fire browns the surface quickly while keeping the interior juicy. Too little heat or too little turning can leave the steak grey, dry or unevenly cooked.

Swap the cucumber

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, parsley, lemon, pepper, potato, anchovy. 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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