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To Grill a Steak

A grilled rump steak topped with a parsley butter pat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

To Grill a Steak

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash and dry the parsley, then chop it finely.

  2. Mix the chopped parsley with the butter, then add pepper, salt, and lemon juice.

  3. Form the mixture into a small pat.

  4. Dip both sides of the steak in salad oil.

  5. Warm a gridiron by the fire.

Grill and serve

  1. Place the oiled steak on the gridiron close to the fire to cook quickly.

  2. If the meat is frozen, warm it gradually before cooking to avoid toughness.

  3. Turn the steak occasionally; it will take 10 to 12 minutes to cook.

  4. When cooked, place the steak on a hot dish without piercing it.

  5. Spread the pat of green butter over the steak with a knife.

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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Rump steak
Lean beef that browns on the outside and stays tender when cooked quickly over high heat.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying the parsley flavour and melting over the hot steak.
Parsley
Adds fresh, green herbal aroma to the butter that will sit on the cooked steak.
Salad oil
Coats the steak so it browns evenly and does not stick to the gridiron.

The step that matters

Turning the steak without piercing it. Piercing lets the juices escape, leaving the steak drier. Turning occasionally and placing it on a hot dish without piercing keeps more moisture inside.

“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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