Meat
Bife à Marrare (Lisbon Steak in Butter and Cream Sauce)
Leonor Perreira · Updated Nov 12, 2026
- Prep
- 10 min
- Total
- 20 min
- Servings
- 2
- Calories
- 610 kcal
Bife à marrare is one of the oldest and best-known Lisbon recipes. It was created in the early 19th century by António Marrare, a Neapolitan who settled in Lisbon: a tender steak in a sauce of cream and butter. Simple, and very hard to forget.
Recipe
Bife à Marrare
A Lisbon classic: tender steak in a creamy butter and cream sauce with a touch of garlic and lemon. One of the great dishes of the Portuguese steak houses.
Ingredients
2 servings
Method
- 1Season the steaks on both sides with coarse salt and plenty of freshly ground black pepper. Press lightly so the pepper sticks to the meat.
- 2In a frying pan (ideally heavy-based), melt the butter with the garlic clove over high heat.
- 3When the butter starts to turn golden, add the steaks. Fry for about 2 to 3 minutes per side, depending on taste (ideally rare in the middle).
- 4Move the steaks to a warm plate and keep them hot.
- 5Remove the garlic from the pan. Lower the heat and add the cream to the melted butter the steaks fried in.
- 6Let the sauce reduce and thicken a little, stirring all the time. Add a few drops of lemon juice and adjust the salt if needed.
- 7Return the steaks to the pan, with the juices they released on the plate, just to heat them quickly in the sauce.
- 8Serve right away, covered with the sauce, with fried potato rounds or fries.
Tips
Don’t overcook the steak: it should be rare in the middle so it stays tender after going back into the pan with the sauce.
Fresh cream gives the best result; cooking cream makes a thinner, less rich sauce.
Serve as soon as the sauce is ready, with fried potato rounds or matchstick potatoes. Plain white rice also soaks up the sauce well.
