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Beefsteak in Oyster Blanket

A steak wrapped in oysters, butter, lemon, and herbs, baked until oysters plump.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Beefsteak in Oyster Blanket

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the steak

  1. Remove the bone from the steak and wipe it with a wet cloth.

  2. Rub the steak with lemon juice.

  3. Grease a wire broiler with trimmed fat and place the steak in it.

Broil and top

  1. Broil the steak over a very hot fire to sear the surface and prevent juices from escaping.

  2. Turn the steak occasionally until cooked on both sides.

  3. Transfer the steak to a baking pan and cover it with oysters, adding small pieces of butter on top.

  4. Squeeze the juice of half a lemon over the oysters.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the pan in a hot oven (400°F / 200°C) and cook until the oysters plump and the edges curl.

  2. Season with salt and pepper, and serve with melted butter, lemon juice, and chopped parsley.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  5. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Porterhouse steak
Provides the main meat; searing and broiling give it a browned surface.
Oysters
Plump and curl in the oven, adding a briny, savoury flavour over the steak.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture as it melts over the steak and oysters.
Lemon
Its juice adds acidity that brightens the oysters and the rich steak.

The step that matters

Broil over a very hot fire to sear the surface. A very hot surface browns the outside quickly, sealing in juices so they do not escape while the steak cooks through.

“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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