Why it works: Parsley and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,765 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Butcher Meat
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Mince the crumbs and parsley very fine and beat them in a mortar.
Season with mixed spices and coarse sea salt, then mix in the yolks of two eggs.
Divide the mixture into pieces equal to the number of steaks.
Spread the mixture on the broad end of each steak.
Cut plain paste into narrow stripes, roll them in your hand, and lay them crosswise on the steaks.
Glaze with a beaten egg and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 45 minutes.
Strain off the fat, plate the steaks nicely, and pour rich gravy around 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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Parsley + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,765 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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