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Savoury Beef-steak

A beef steak rolled with breadcrumb and herb crust, baked and served with gravy and mashed potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Savoury Beef-steak

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Mix breadcrumbs, sweet herbs, parsley, pepper, and salt in a bowl.

  3. Spread the mixture thickly over the steak.

  4. Roll up the steak with the seasoning inside and tie it with string.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in the preheated oven until cooked through.

  2. Serve with brown gravy and mashed potatoes.

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

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

  3. Beef + parsleytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,866 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef steak
Forms the main body that is rolled around the seasoning and cooked through.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crumb layer that absorbs juices and browns in the oven.
Powdered sweet herbs
Add aromatic flavour that penetrates the crumb coating and the meat.
Parsley
Adds fresh, green aroma and a light herbal note to the crumb mixture.

The step that matters

Roll and tie the steak tightly. Even thickness and a snug roll let the steak cook evenly, so the outside is not overdone before the centre reaches safe doneness. Loose rolling leaves gaps where the filling can fall out and the meat cooks unevenly.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Rosemaryfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Celeryfits about as well

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

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