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Planked Steak

A steak cooked on a hot plank with butter, salt, pepper, and served with boiled potatoes, onions, spinach, asparagus, tomatoes, peas, mushroom sauce, and garnish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Spinach and asparagus match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 274 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, which smells clove, smoky. The science ↓

Planked Steak

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the steak

  1. Preheat the plank until very hot.

  2. Broil the steak lightly on one side.

  3. Place the broiled side down on the plank.

  4. Brush the steak with melted butter or olive oil.

  5. Sprinkle the steak with salt and pepper.

  6. Place the plank on the broiler of a gas stove over low flame.

  7. Broil slowly for about 15 minutes.

Prepare the vegetables and potatoes

  1. Prepare the potatoes by pressing them through a ricer.

  2. Season the potatoes with salt, pepper, and butter.

  3. Moisten the potatoes with cream.

  4. Beat the potatoes with a fork until light.

  5. Prepare the onions, spinach, asparagus, baked stuffed tomatoes or peppers, and peas.

Assemble and serve

  1. When the steak is nearly done, remove the plank from the oven.

  2. Press the potatoes through a pastry tube to form a border around the edge of the plank.

  3. Neatly place the other vegetables between the potato border and the steak.

  4. Pour the mushroom sauce over the steak.

  5. Return the plank to the oven to heat through.

  6. Allow the potatoes to brown slightly.

  7. Garnish with parsley or watercress.

  8. Serve on a large tray or platter.

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. Spinach + asparagustop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together274 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

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

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

  3. Potato + asparagustop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together217 recipes

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

  4. Potato + spinachtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together646 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + spinachtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Steak
Forms the main protein; broiling browns its surface while the inside cooks gently.
Butter or olive oil
Adds fat and moisture to the steak surface, aiding browning and flavour.
Potatoes
Form a light, creamy border that is seasoned and browned on the plank.
Cream
Moistens the mashed potatoes, giving them a softer, smoother texture.
Mushroom sauce
Adds moisture and savoury flavour over the cooked steak.

The step that matters

Broil slowly over low flame. Low, gentle heat cooks the steak through without burning the surface before the interior is done. Pressing the potatoes into a border and letting them brown slightly relies on the same careful heat control.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper, potato, cream, milk, spinach, asparagus):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Lettucefits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, potato, cream, milk, spinach, asparagus. 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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