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Fillet of Beef

Grilled slices of beef fillet served with a buttery sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Fillet of Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Trim the fillet of beef, leaving ½ inch of fat on each side.

  2. Cut the beef into slices ¼ inch thick, about 6 pieces.

Grill the beef

  1. Shape the slices round and place them on a grill over a sharp fire.

  2. Season with ¼ teaspoon of coarse sea salt and ⅛ teaspoon of black pepper while broiling.

  3. Turn the slices once or twice to keep the juices in.

Make the sauce

  1. For the sauce, combine egg yolks, butter, ½ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon black pepper, lemon juice, and parsley in a saucepan.

  2. Heat on a slow fire, stirring quickly until thickened.

  3. Remove from heat for 30 seconds while stirring.

  4. Return to heat until the butter melts and the sauce is smooth.

  5. If too thick, add a little milk or cream and adjust seasoning with more salt, pepper, and lemon juice if needed.

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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  4. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  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
Provides the meat that is sliced and grilled, with fat left on for juiciness.
Egg yolks
Emulsify with the butter and thicken the sauce as they gently heat.
Butter
Enriches the sauce with fat, giving it a smooth, rich texture.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter and egg yolk sauce.

The step that matters

Heating the egg yolk sauce slowly. Egg yolks thicken when gently heated but scramble if the heat is too high. Stirring steadily and removing the pan briefly keeps the sauce smooth and prevents curdling.

“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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