Name: Beef Steaks a Ea Franqaise
Ingredients: sirloin or rump beef, cut into quarter-inch slices; coarse sea salt; black pepper; clarified butter; 1 teaspoon finely minced parsley; 1 large slice fresh butter; a pinch of cayenne pepper; juice of ½ 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 Ea Franqaise

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

Season the beef slices with coarse sea salt and black pepper.
Brush the slices with a little clarified butter.

Cook and serve

Boil the steaks over a clear, brisk fire until done.
Mix the minced parsley, fresh butter, cayenne, and a small amount of salt.
Place the mixture in a serving dish and lay the steaks on top.
Garnish with fried potatoes arranged evenly around the meat.
Squeeze the juice of ½ lemon over the butter before serving.

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).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef: Provides the main protein; cooking it quickly over high heat gives a browned, tender-textured steak.
Clarified butter: Coats the slices so they brown evenly and do not stick to the cooking surface.
Fresh butter: Adds richness and a silky moisture to the sauce beneath the steaks.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter and balances the beef.

The step that matters

Boil the steaks over a clear, brisk fire until done. A brisk, steady fire cooks thin slices quickly and browns the surface. Too little heat steams the meat and turns it grey and tough, while overcooking dries it 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.

Potato Croquettes255 recipes

Lemon Sauce236 recipes

Roast Beef211 recipes

Beef Loaf175 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Beef Steaks a Ea Franqaise