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Beefsteak Fie with Oysters

A savory pie of seasoned beefsteak and oysters baked in pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Beefsteak Fie with Oysters

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.

Prepare the filling

  1. Cut the steak into pieces measuring 1.5 by 2.5 inches.

  2. Season the meat with salt, pepper, cayenne, and lemon juice.

  3. Place the seasoned meat in a pie dish.

  4. Pour the oyster liquor over the meat, adding stock or gravy to cover.

  5. If desired, stew the trimmings of the steak with the oyster gills for added flavor.

Assemble and bake

  1. When cooled, add the oysters and more gravy, then cover with pastry.

  2. Decorate the pastry with leaves before baking.

  3. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 1 hour and 15 minutes to 1 hour and 30 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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  2. Oyster + anchovytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together603 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Lemon + anchovytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,080 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Pepper + anchovytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Pepper + oystertop 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

Rump steak
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender during long, gentle cooking in the pie.
Oysters
Add a briny, savoury flavour that stands out against the beef.
Oyster liquor
Adds salty, briny flavour and moisture to the filling.
Pastry
Seals the pie and browns in the oven, giving a golden, crisp top.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the seasoned meat.

The step that matters

Adding the oysters after the filling has cooled. Oysters cook quickly and turn rubbery if heated too long. Adding them once the filling has cooled, then baking only until the pastry browns, keeps them tender and plump.

“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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