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To Fry Beef Steaks with Oysters

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

To Fry Beef Steaks with Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Season the beef steaks with pepper, avoiding salt to keep them tender.

  2. Cook the steaks over medium heat, turning often until firm.

  3. Once cooked, season with salt to taste.

  4. Wash the oysters in salt water and let their liquor settle, then pour off the clear liquid.

  5. Gently stew the oysters in their liquor with nutmeg, whole pepper, and cloves, being careful not to overcook.

  6. When nearly done, add wine and a piece of butter rolled in flour to thicken the sauce.

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. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  4. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Clovethe original

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

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