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Beef-steaks and Oyster Sauce

Beef steaks served with oyster sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Oyster and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,233 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Beef-steaks and Oyster Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prepare the oyster sauce according to recipe No. 492 and keep it warm by the fire without boiling.

Cook the steaks

  1. Cut the steaks to an equal thickness and broil them over a clear fire, turning often to retain the juices.

  2. After about 8 minutes, when done, place the steaks on a hot dish.

Serve

  1. Smother the steaks with the oyster sauce and serve the remainder in a tureen.

  2. Serve quickly.

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. Oyster + saucetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Oyster + peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,663 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Sauce + peppertop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,303 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sauce and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,303 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Rump steak
Provides the meat, which is seared over direct heat so its juices stay inside while it cooks.
Oysters
Give the sauce a briny, savoury flavour that complements the beef.

The step that matters

Turning the steaks often over the fire. Frequent turning spreads heat evenly and helps the surface seal, which keeps the juices inside the meat rather than letting them run out onto the fire.

“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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