Name: Beef Steak Pie with Oysters
Ingredients: 3 pounds rump steak; 2 shallots, minced; ½ ounce black pepper; 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt; a pinch of cayenne pepper; 1 teaspoon ground cloves; 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour; large oysters, parboiled and gills removed; ½ pint beef gravy

Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Beef Steak Pie with Oysters

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a good oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Use beef that has been hung for a few days to avoid beating.
Mix shallots, black pepper, coarse sea salt, cayenne, ground cloves, and flour for seasoning.
Cut the steak into 2.5‑inch pieces and brown them quickly in a frying pan.
Reduce the oyster liquor and combine it with beef gravy to make ½ pint.

Assemble and bake

Layer the browned meat in a pie dish with seasoning and oysters in alternate layers.
Pour the mixture into the pie and cover with pastry.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 2 hours or more.

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.

Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Shallot + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,677 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Shallot + flourtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,081 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Shallot + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,898 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: Provides the main meat, which becomes tender during long, slow cooking.
Oysters: Add a briny, savoury flavour that deepens the filling.
All-purpose flour: Thickens the juices in the filling so it sets rather than running.
Beef gravy: Adds moisture and meaty richness to the filling.
Shallots: Add a mild, sweet onion-like aroma to the seasoning.

The step that matters

Brown the steak quickly. Searing the meat in a hot pan builds browned, savoury flavour through the Maillard reaction. Crowding the pan or overcooking it makes the meat steam and turn grey, which weakens the final flavour.

Swap the clove

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

Capersfits better
Parsleyfits better
Tarragonfits better
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shallot, pepper, flour, oyster, beef. 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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Beef Steak Pie with Oysters