Name: Beef Steaks a LA Franqaise
Ingredients: sirloin or rump beef, cut into quarter-inch slices; coarse sea salt; black pepper; clarified butter; 1 teaspoon minced parsley; 1 large slice fresh butter; a pinch of cayenne pepper; 1/2 lemon; fried potatoes

Why it works: Parsley and lemon 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 ↓

Beef Steaks a LA Franqaise

Ingredients

Directions

Season the beef slices with coarse sea salt and black pepper.
Brush the slices with a little clarified butter.
Broil the steaks over a clear, brisk fire until cooked to your liking.
In a bowl, mix the minced parsley, fresh butter, cayenne pepper, and a small amount of salt.
Place the mixture in a serving dish, lay the cooked steaks on top, and garnish with fried potatoes.
Squeeze the juice of half a lemon over the butter before adding the meat.

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.

Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together28,563 recipes

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