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Beefsteak and Oyster Pie

A savory pie with beefsteak, oysters, and pastry crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Oyster and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,184 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓

Beefsteak and Oyster Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Gently beat the beefsteak with a rolling pin and season with coarse sea salt and pepper.

  2. Line the upper edges of a deep pie dish with pastry.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place the beefsteak at the bottom of the dish and layer the oysters on top.

  2. Dot the oysters with butter and season with additional salt and pepper.

  3. Boil the oyster liquor, strain it, and pour it over the oysters.

  4. Cover the pie with a rich crust and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.

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

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

  2. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Beefsteak
Forms the meaty base layer and becomes tender and savoury as it cooks.
Oysters
Provide a briny, savoury flavour and soft texture within the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the oysters brown lightly on top.
Pastry
Encloses the filling and forms a crisp, golden crust during baking.

The step that matters

Pouring the oyster liquor over the oysters. The liquor must be boiled and strained so that grit and impurities are removed and the filling is not gritty or cloudy. Boiling also reduces the risk of raw shellfish juices in the pie.

“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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