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A Grilled Steak

A grilled steak served with a pat of green butter made from parsley, butter, pepper, salt, and lemon juice.

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

A Grilled Steak

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

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

  2. Mix the chopped parsley with ¼ ounce of butter. Add pepper, salt, and six drops of lemon juice to the mixture. Form the mixture into a small pat.

  3. Dip both sides of the steak into 2 teaspoons of salad oil.

Grill and serve

  1. Warm a gridiron by the fire.

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

  3. Turn the gridiron occasionally; cook for 10 to 12 minutes.

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

  5. Spread the pat of green butter over the steak.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 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. 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
Forms the main body of the dish; cooking it over high heat browns the surface and keeps the inside juicy.
Butter
Carries the parsley and seasonings and melts over the hot steak, adding richness and flavour.
Salad oil
Coats the steak so it browns evenly and does not stick to the gridiron.
Parsley
Adds fresh, green aroma and a herbal flavour to the butter.

The step that matters

Placing the steak on the gridiron. The gridiron must be hot before the steak goes on, and the steak should be placed close to the fire. Heat that is too low lets the meat steam and grey instead of forming a browned crust.

“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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