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Fillets of Beef a LA Bearnaise

Fillets of beef served with Béarnaise sauce and brown sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,563 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Fillets of Beef a LA Bearnaise

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fillets

  1. Prepare the fillets, then dip them in beaten egg and coat with bread crumbs.

  2. Fry the fillets in 2 tablespoons of hot butter until golden, then drain on paper towels.

Make the Béarnaise sauce

  1. For the Béarnaise sauce, finely chop the shallot and combine it with the tarragon vinegar in a saucepan; boil until the vinegar evaporates.

  2. Add the white sauce and egg yolks to the shallot mixture, cooking while stirring until thick.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in the remaining butter in small pieces, then add the parsley.

Serve

  1. Place the sauce in the center of the fillets, pour the brown sauce around, and serve.

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. Tarragon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,547 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef fillets
Form the main body of the dish, cooked to golden under the crumb coating.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating on the outside of the fillets when fried.
Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce as they cook with the shallot mixture, giving it a rich, smooth body.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour to the frying and finishes the sauce for a silky texture.
Tarragon vinegar
Provides acidity and aromatic tarragon flavour, reduced to concentrate the sauce base.

The step that matters

Cooking the egg yolk sauce. Egg yolks thicken when gently heated but can scramble if overheated. Cook while stirring over low heat, then remove from heat before adding the butter so the sauce stays smooth.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, sauce, butter, egg, bread, tarragon, vinegar):

  1. Capersfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Nutmegfits less well
  4. Marjoramfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, sauce, butter, egg, bread, tarragon, vinegar. 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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