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Beef Steaks a LA Franqaise

Beef steaks served with a butter‑parsley‑cayenne sauce and fried potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Beef Steaks a LA Franqaise

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Season the beef slices with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

  2. Dip the slices in a little clarified butter.

  3. Broil the steaks over a clear, brisk fire until done.

Make the parsley butter

  1. In a bowl, mix minced parsley, fresh butter, cayenne pepper, and a small amount of salt.

  2. Squeeze the juice of half a lemon over the butter before adding the meat.

Serve

  1. Place the mixture in a serving dish and lay the cooked steaks on top.

  2. Slice the potatoes thinly, fry until golden brown, and arrange them around 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.

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

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

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Beef sirloin or rump
Provides the main protein, which firms and browns when broiled over high heat.
Clarified butter
Coats the slices so they brown evenly and do not dry out under the broiler.
Fresh butter
Melts into the parsley mixture, adding richness and a smooth sauce-like base for the steaks.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter and cuts its heaviness.

The step that matters

Broil over a clear, brisk fire until done. Thin slices cook quickly, so high, steady heat sears the outside and browns the surface before the inside overcooks. Too little heat leaves the steak grey and tough, while too long lets it dry out.

“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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