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Plank Steak

A thick steak served on a wooden plank with mashed potatoes, peas, string beans, and carrots, finished with egg yolk butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,107 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Plank Steak

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Cook the steak

  1. Preheat a hot broiler and oil it well.

  2. Cook the steak over the coals for about 8 minutes, turning several times.

  3. Place the cooked steak on a hot wooden plank.

Build the plank

  1. Pile hot mashed potatoes around the edge of the plank.

  2. Brush the edges of the potatoes with a beaten egg yolk mixed with milk.

  3. Set the plank in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) to brown and reheat the potatoes.

  4. Remove from the oven and fill the space between the steak and potatoes with cooked peas, string beans, and thin strips of carrot.

  5. Season with salt, pepper, and butter.

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. Potato + carrottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Beans + carrottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,443 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Potato + beanstop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together655 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  4. Peas + beanstop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together949 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  5. Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 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

Steak
Provides the main meat, which browns on the outside while staying juicy inside.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the finished dish.
Hot mashed potatoes
Forms a soft border that holds the steak and vegetables on the plank.
Egg yolk
Browns the potato edges in the oven, giving a glossy golden finish.
Milk
Thins the egg yolk so it spreads evenly and browns smoothly.

The step that matters

Cooking the steak over the coals. The steak is thick, so turning it several times helps it cook evenly and brown without the outside overcooking before the centre is done.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, butter, potato, egg, milk, beans, carrot):

  1. Chickpeafits about as well
  2. Lima beansfits about as well
  3. Peanutfits about as well
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, butter, potato, egg, milk, beans, carrot. 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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