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Glite Dictionary
steak au poivre

steak au poivre

1 8.6
A piece of beef covered in crushed pepper and cooked in a hot pan with a brandy and butter sauce
  • noun
  • /steɪk oʊ pwɑːvr/
translation icon : bistec a la pimienta

Examples

  • A single rose in a crystal vase was surrounded by the remains of shrimp cocktail, steak au poivre, pommes frites, and zucchini squash.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • My favorite dish at the restaurant is steak au poivre, served with a delicious brandy sauce.

  • When dining out, I always order steak au poivre because I love the peppery flavor.

  • For dinner, I decided to make steak au poivre with a side of roasted vegetables.

Synonyms

pepper steak
vssteak au poivre
1 3.4

A steak covered with crushed pepper and cooked in a pan with brandy and butter sauce

is the same dish but named in French culinary usage
peppered steak
vssteak au poivre
3.5

A steak covered with crushed black pepper and cooked quickly in a pan

is the same dish but states the sauce as the usual accompaniment

Surface Forms

steak au poivre singular
steaks au poivre plural

Morphology

steak + au + poivre

When the constituents are known ('steak' + French 'au' = 'with/in the style of' + 'poivre' = 'pepper'), the dish meaning 'steak with/covered in pepper' is directly compositional and immediately derivable. Although the phrase is a French culinary borrowing, its semantics are transparent to learners who know the component words and similar constructions exist across languages.

Etymology

The name steak au poivre comes from French words steak and poivre, and it literally means 'steak with pepper'. Imagine a steak covered with crushed peppercorns and seared so the pepper forms a spicy crust, and that's why the phrase means 'a steak coated with pepper' today.