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Beefsteaks a LA Brisse

Beefsteaks served with a highly-spiced tomato sauce and surrounded by small timbales of mashed turnips.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beefsteaks a LA Brisse

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Marinate the fillet steaks slightly, then drain them.

  2. Prepare a well-reduced and highly-spiced tomato sauce.

Cook and serve

  1. Broil the steaks until cooked to your liking.

  2. Serve the steaks with the tomato sauce and surround them with small timbales of mashed turnips.

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. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + turniptop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,252 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Tomato + turniptop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together463 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenol (green, grassy).

  4. Tomato + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,469 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Sauce + turniptop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Small round fillet steaks
Provide the main cut of beef, which is cooked by broiling to the desired doneness.
Tomato sauce
Adds acidity and savoury depth, made richer by reducing it well.
Mashed turnips
Form a mild, soft side that contrasts with the seared beef and sauce.

The step that matters

Broil the steaks until cooked to your liking. Beef continues to cook briefly after leaving the heat, and the high direct heat of broiling browns the surface quickly. Removing the steaks at the right moment keeps the centre at the intended doneness and prevents a dry, overcooked result.

Swap the turnip

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Eggplantfits better
  3. Okrafits better
  4. Turnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, sauce, 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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