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Plankbd Steak

A thick sirloin steak cooked on a heated plank, seasoned with salt, pepper, butter, lemon, parsley, and garnished with potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, and cress.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley 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 ↓

Plankbd Steak

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the plank

  1. Preheat the gas oven for 8 to 10 minutes and heat the plank in the upper oven.

Cook the steak

  1. Brown the steak quickly on both sides over the flame.

  2. Reduce the flame and cook the steak more slowly until done.

Season and serve

  1. Place the steak on the heated plank and season with salt, pepper, and the creamed butter mixed with lemon juice and minced parsley.

  2. Garnish with a border of potatoes and small stuffed tomatoes, pimentos or green peppers, and cress.

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

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

  5. Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 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

Choice sirloin steak
Provides the main protein; browning on high heat builds flavor on the surface.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, melting over the hot steak to carry flavor.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the buttery seasoning and balances the rich beef.

The step that matters

Brown quickly, then reduce the flame. A hot sear develops browning on the surface, while slower cooking afterward brings the interior to doneness without burning the outside.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, butter, lemon, parsley, potato. 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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