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Fillets of Beef a LA Francaise

Beef fillets cooked with fat, butter, and a glaze, served over mashed potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Fillets of Beef a LA Francaise

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fat

  1. Shape the fillets nicely and prepare pieces of fat equal to the number of fillets.

  2. Cook the fat in the oven.

  3. Pour the melted fat into a frying pan.

  4. If there's not enough fat, add a little butter.

  5. Heat the fat until hot.

Fry and glaze

  1. Lay the fillets in the fat and fry until nicely browned but slightly underdone.

  2. Remove the fillets and keep them warm on a plate.

  3. Pour the glaze or jelly into the frying pan. Let it boil for a few minutes.

  4. Season the fillets with salt and pepper.

Serve

  1. Fry potato rounds in hot fat.

  2. Serve them on a round of mashed potatoes. Place them in the center of the dish.

  3. Pour the glaze or jelly over the fillets.

  4. Top each with a small piece of fat and maître d'hôtel 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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

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

  4. Beef + parsleytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,866 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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 be browned outside and slightly underdone inside.
Fat (in the method)
Frying medium that browns the fillets and adds richness and flavor to the surface.
Glaze or strong jelly
Adds a glossy coating and concentrated sweetness and savor when boiled and poured over the fillets.
Butter
Adds richness and a rounded flavor to the frying fat and the final topping.

The step that matters

Frying the fillets until browned but slightly underdone. Fillets are tender and lean, so high heat browns the surface through the Maillard reaction while the interior stays juicy. Overcooking dries the meat and makes it tough.

“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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