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Broiled Tenderloin

Broiled tenderloin served with round beef juice, butter, sea salt, lemon juice, and optional parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley 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 ↓

Broiled Tenderloin

Ingredients

Directions

Broil

  1. Broil the tenderloin slice over coals for eight minutes, turning every ten seconds.

  2. Broil a small piece of round beef at the same time.

  3. Press the juice from the round beef over the tenderloin.

Season and serve

  1. Season the tenderloin with butter, coarse sea salt, and lemon juice.

  2. Add a little minced parsley 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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Beef + parsleytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,866 recipes

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

  5. Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Tenderloin
Main cut of meat that becomes tender and browned over direct heat from the coals.
Round beef
Its pressed juice adds meaty flavor and moisture to the tenderloin.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a silky mouthfeel on the cooked meat.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor of the rich beef.

The step that matters

Turning the tenderloin every ten seconds over coals. Frequent turning over intense direct heat builds an even brown crust quickly while the interior cooks gently, reducing the risk of charring the outside before the center is done.

Swap the parsley

The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, lemon):

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Pepperfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, lemon. 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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