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Oyster Pot-pie

A savory pie of oysters simmered in a thickened broth with biscuit squares.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Oyster Pot-pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oysters

  1. Scald the oysters in their own liquor until boiling.

  2. Skim the oysters out and set aside in a warm place.

Make the stew

  1. Add hot water to the liquor.

  2. Season the mixture with salt and pepper.

  3. Add butter.

  4. Thicken the mixture with flour and cold milk.

Add the dough and finish

  1. Roll out the biscuit dough to twice the thickness of pie crust.

  2. Cut the dough into 1-inch squares.

  3. Drop the squares into the boiling stew.

  4. Cover the stew closely.

  5. Cook for 40 minutes.

  6. Stir the oysters into the stew.

  7. Serve all together in one dish.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Flour + biscuittop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together889 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pepper + biscuittop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together841 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Provide the main flavor and tender texture of the filling.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquor into a thick, spoonable stew.
Cold milk
Mixed with flour to thicken the liquor smoothly and add richness.
Biscuit dough
Cooks in the stew to form soft dumplings that absorb the liquid.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a rounder, more savory flavor.

The step that matters

Thicken the mixture with flour and cold milk. Flour added to hot liquid clumps unless first blended smoothly with cold milk. Starch granules need to be separated before heating so they swell evenly and give a smooth, thickened stew.

“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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