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Steak and Oysters

A baked dish of steak and oysters topped with sliced onions.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Oyster and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,920 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Steak and Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Remove the hard part and gills from the oysters and place them in an oval dish, covering them with their liquor.

  2. Place the steak on top of the oysters and cover it with the onions, sliced very thin.

  3. Invert another dish over the steak and seal the edges with a paste.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a gentle oven at 300°F (150°C) for one hour.

  2. Reverse the dishes for five minutes.

  3. Remove the top dish and serve.

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 + oniontop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,920 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Rump steak
Forms the main body of the dish and becomes tender during the long, gentle cooking.
Oysters
Release their liquor into the dish, adding moisture and a briny flavour to the steak.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma as they soften under the covered dish.

The step that matters

Sealing the top dish with paste. A tight seal traps steam inside so the steak and oysters cook in their own juices. A gap lets moisture escape, so the meat can dry out and the oyster liquor is lost.

“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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