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Beef Steak and Oyster Pie

A savory pie filled with diced beef steak, oysters, onions, and a seasoned broth, topped with a double crust.

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. In a skillet, brown the beef steak and onion over medium heat.

  3. Sprinkle flour over the meat and stir to combine.

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

  5. Remove from heat and stir in the 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 meat, browning in the pan for savory flavor and a hearty filling.
Flour
Thickens the broth into a gravy-like filling that holds together in the pie.
Oysters
Add a briny, savory flavor to the filling.
Beef broth
Supplies the liquid that simmers the filling and carries its savory flavor.
Onion
Softens and sweetens as it browns, adding depth to the filling.

The step that matters

Thickening the filling with flour. Flour must be stirred into the browned meat so it coats the pieces before the broth is added. If it is left in lumps or not cooked through during simmering, the filling can stay pasty or taste raw, and it may run out of the pie when cut.

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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