Skip to main content
Main

Fillet Steak

A beef fillet steak served with butter and parsley, accompanied by chipped potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Fillet Steak

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the steaks

  1. Cut the beef into small steaks and trim them neatly.

  2. Dust the steaks well with pepper and salt.

Cook and finish

  1. Heat 2 oz of butter in a frying pan until smoking hot.

  2. Fry the steaks until nicely browned, being careful not to overcook them.

  3. Arrange the steaks on a hot dish and place in the oven.

  4. Melt the remaining butter in a small saucepan, then add chopped parsley, pepper, and salt.

  5. Pour a little of the butter mixture over each fillet.

  6. Serve with nicely chipped potatoes arranged around the steaks.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Parsley + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  5. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Fillet of beef
Forms the main body of the dish; its lean, tender meat is cooked to a browned surface.
Butter
Conducts heat for browning the steaks and adds richness to the finishing sauce.
Parsley
Adds fresh, green aroma to the melted butter spooned over the steaks.

The step that matters

Fry the steaks until nicely browned, being careful not to overcook them.. Searing in very hot fat browns the surface through the Maillard reaction, adding flavour. Lean fillet dries out and toughens quickly once its interior passes the desired doneness, so timing matters.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, pepper, potato):

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Rosemaryfits less well
  4. Garlicfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, pepper, potato. 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.

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesRoast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCorned BeefCorned Beef87 recipes