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Beef-steaks with Potatoes

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 ↓

Beef-steaks with Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Flatten the rump steaks and season with coarse sea salt and mixed spices.

  2. Dip the steaks in melted butter to retain their juices while broiling.

  3. Prepare a hot dish with parboiled, finely shredded parsley, butter, pepper, and salt.

  4. Broil the steaks as directed in the previous recipe.

  5. Place the broiled steaks on the prepared dish and quickly turn them over once or twice.

  6. Arrange very hot fried potatoes or potato fritters 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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

  4. Butter + fried potatotop 40% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together0 recipes

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

  5. Parsley + fried potatotop 77% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together0 recipes

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

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

Swap the parsley

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, fried potato. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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