Why it works: Butter and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Fillets of Beef a LA Bearnaise
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fillets
Cut the fillet from the sirloin and trim it to be round.
Cut eight fillets about ½ inch thick and flatten them to the same size.
Cook and serve
Heat the butter in a sauté pan and fry the fillets for 7 to 8 minutes.
Arrange the fillets on an entrée dish and pour the Sauce Bearnaise over them.
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.
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Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,847 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Beef + saucetop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,650 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sirloin of beef
- Provides the main protein; searing browns the surface and sets a firm, tender texture.
- Butter
- Conducts heat in the pan and adds fat that helps the fillets brown and taste rich.
- Sauce bearnaise
- Adds a rich, creamy, tangy coating that complements the seared beef.
The step that matters
Flatten the fillets to the same size. Fillets of even thickness cook at the same rate, so they reach the same doneness together instead of some being overcooked while others are still underdone.
“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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