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Planked Steak

A steak served on a plank with steamed cauliflower, carrots, peas, asparagus, green beans, and mashed potatoes, finished with beaten egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cauliflower and asparagus match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 163 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Planked Steak

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the steaks

  1. Trim excess fat, remove bone, and discard tough edges from the steaks.

  2. Press the steaks together in an oblong shape on a rack or broiling pan.

Cook the vegetables

  1. Steam the cauliflower and carrots in butter until tender.

Broil and plate

  1. Broil the steaks in a hot oven until cooked to your liking.

  2. Place the hot steak on a heated plank, season with salt and pepper.

  3. Use a pastry bag to pipe the mashed potatoes in a circular pattern around the edge of the plank.

  4. Fill each loop of potatoes with peas and arrange carrots, asparagus tips, and cauliflower around the steak.

  5. Fill any vacant spaces with green beans.

  6. Brush the potatoes with beaten egg and return the plank to the oven to heat and brown lightly 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.

  1. Cauliflower + asparagustop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together163 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  2. Beans + asparagustop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together292 recipes

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

  3. Cauliflower + beanstop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together290 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Peas + asparagustop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together808 recipes

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

  5. Asparagus + potatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together217 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

Sirloin steaks
Provide the main meat, cooked by broiling to the diner's preferred doneness.
Mashed potatoes
Form a piped border that holds the vegetables and sets the plank presentation.
Beaten egg
Coats the potatoes so they brown lightly in the oven.
Butter
Adds richness and fat while the cauliflower and carrots steam to tenderness.

The step that matters

Brush the potatoes with beaten egg and brown lightly. Egg proteins set and brown under heat, so the piped potatoes gain color and a glossy finish. Too long in the oven can dry the potatoes or scorch the egg, so watch them closely.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Lentilsfits about as well
  2. Peasthe original
  3. Lima beansfits about as well
  4. Chestnutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against cauliflower, butter, beans, carrot, asparagus, potato, pepper. 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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