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Chops and Steaks

Oven-baked chops and steaks seasoned with salt, pepper, and butter, served with parsley butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Chops and Steaks

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Wipe the meat and trim off excess fat if necessary.

  2. Skewer the chops to keep their shape.

  3. Season with salt and pepper, then brush with oiled butter.

Bake

  1. Place in a well-greased paper bag on a grid shelf in a hot oven (400°F / 200°C).

  2. Cook for 15 to 18 minutes, depending on thickness.

Serve

  1. Mix butter with salt, pepper, lemon juice, and chopped parsley for parsley butter.

  2. Serve the meat with parsley butter and pour any gravy from the bag over it.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 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

Meat
Provides the main protein, which firms and browns as it cooks in the hot oven.
Oiled butter
Adds fat and moisture, helping the surface brown and stay tender.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter and parsley sauce.
Parsley
Adds fresh aroma and color to the parsley butter.

The step that matters

Cook for 15 to 18 minutes, depending on thickness. Meat continues to cook from residual heat after leaving the oven, and overcooking dries out proteins and toughens the meat. Thicker cuts need the longer time, so check thickness before timing.

“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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