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Beefsteak and Fried Potatoes

Beefsteak served with fried potatoes and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

Beefsteak and Fried Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the butter

  1. Knead the butter, parsley, lemon juice, and a little cayenne together.

  2. Spread the mixture on a plate and set aside to firm up.

Fry the potatoes

  1. Peel the potatoes and slice them.

  2. Fry the slices in a deep pan of hot fat until tender.

  3. Remove the potatoes and let them rest on a plate until the fat is hot again.

  4. Return them to the pan and fry for 2-3 minutes until crisp.

Grill and serve

  1. Grill the steak over a clear fire until cooked to your liking.

  2. Cut the maitre d’hotel butter into rounds using a small cutter.

  3. Serve the steak on a hot dish, garnished with the crispy potatoes and pats of butter on top.

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 + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 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

Rump steak
Provides the main protein, which browns and firms as it grills over high heat.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, melting over the hot steak and carrying the herb flavour.
Potatoes
Form a starchy base that turns tender inside and crisp outside when fried.

The step that matters

Returning the potatoes to the hot fat. Reheating the fat after resting lets the potato surfaces dehydrate and brown, so the slices become crisp rather than greasy or soft.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Spinachfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, parsley, lemon, 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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