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Beef Steak and Oyster Pie

A savory pie filled with browned beef, oysters, onions, and a seasoned broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beef Steak and Oyster Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the filling

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Cut the beef steak into small pieces and brown in a skillet.

  3. Add chopped onion and cook until soft.

  4. Stir in flour and cook for 1 minute.

  5. Add beef broth, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper; simmer for 10 minutes.

  6. Remove from heat and stir in oysters.

Assemble and bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a pie crust and cover with another crust.

  2. Seal the edges and cut slits in the top crust.

  3. Bake for 30-35 minutes until golden brown.

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. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef steak
Provides the main meaty body and savory flavor of the filling.
Flour
Thickens the broth into a rich gravy that holds the filling together.
Beef broth
Adds liquid that cooks the filling and carries its savory flavor.
Oysters
Add a briny, savory flavor that deepens the filling.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aromatic depth as it softens.
Pie crust
Encloses the filling and browns to form the golden top and base.

The step that matters

Stir in flour and cook for 1 minute. Cooking the flour briefly in the fat and drippings removes its raw taste and lets it thicken the broth smoothly rather than leaving lumps.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, oyster, flour, sauce, pepper):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Horseradishfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, oyster, flour, sauce, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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