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Carpet Bag
Parsley I piece round steak 20 oysters Take a piece of round steak as large as you require and three inches thick; split half through with a sharp knife; place the oysters inside and close like a sandwich. Sew carefully together at the edges, and roast until cooked; the length of time depends upon the size of the steak. Serve hot garnished with parsley.
I calf's heart
Carpetbag steak is a pocket roast: the oysters steam inside the beef and season it from within. The stray line "I calf's heart" at the end belongs to the next recipe in the book, not to this one.
- The hinge: cut the pocket, not the steakSplit the steak horizontally with a thin knife, leaving three sides joined, so it opens like a book with one hinge. Only the open edge then needs closing, which is far easier than sewing three seams.
- Cut of beefRound steak three inches thick is a lean, tough cut that will need either a long slow roast or slicing very thin across the grain. A thick-cut sirloin, rump or fillet section behaves better under the fast heat the oysters want.
- Oven temperatureThe book gives none. If the steak is tender enough to serve pink, a hot oven of around 425F suits it; timing for a three-inch stuffed piece will vary a good deal, so go by a thermometer rather than the clock and rest the meat about 10 minutes before carving.
- Oysters and timingTwenty shucked oysters is roughly a pint. They need only brief heat and are shielded by the beef around them; roasted to well done they will shrink and toughen, so the filling is at its best when the beef is not overcooked.
- Closing the pocketUse cotton butcher's twine and a trussing needle, or short metal skewers laced with twine. Do not use synthetic thread. Drain the oysters well first, or the liquor will leak out and steam the exterior instead of browning it.
- SeasoningPeriod recipes of this kind assume salt and pepper as a matter of course. Season the beef inside and out; the oysters bring their own salt, so go lightly on the interior.
- Yield"As large as you require" means the steak is scaled to the table. A three-inch steak of about 2 lb, with the oysters, serves four generously.
- ServingCarve across the grain in thick slices so each one shows a band of oysters. Parsley is the whole garnish as written; a spoonful of the resting juices is a worthwhile addition.
Carpetbag steak is generally said to take its name from the pocket slit in the meat, likened to the soft-sided travelling bag, though this is the traditional account rather than documented fact, and the dish is most often associated with Australia, where cheap Sydney rock oysters and plentiful beef made the combination unremarkable rather than luxurious. The pairing itself is older and broader: British and American cookery of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries used oysters freely as a stuffing, a sauce and a stretcher for beef and mutton, at a time when oysters were among the cheapest protein available in port cities. By the time books like this one appeared, oyster beds in both Britain and the eastern United States were in decline and prices were climbing, which is part of why a dish of steak and oysters gradually shifted from everyday to celebratory.