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Oyster Loaf

A loaf of bread filled with oysters, crumbs, salt, pepper, milk, butter, and cream, baked until crisp.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Hamilton, Ohio. First Methodist Episcopal church. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and tea work together. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 260 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Oyster Loaf

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the loaf

  1. Take a small loaf of baker's bread, cut off the top, and scrape out crumbs.

Make the filling

  1. Put as many oysters as desired (about 1 pint) into a stew pan with half the crumbs, ½ teaspoon salt, 1 saltspoon pepper, a little milk, and a good lump of butter; stew together 15 minutes, or until the edges of oysters curl.

  2. Add 1 teaspoon cream.

Fill and serve

  1. Fill the loaf with this mixture, cover with crust, and set in oven to crisp.

  2. Cut into slices at table for serving.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

57Calories
1 gProtein
6 gFat
2 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 2 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Hamilton, Ohio. First Methodist Episcopal church. [from old catalog]. 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. See the original page.

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 + teatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together260 recipes

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

  2. Tea + creamtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together463 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  3. Pepper + creamtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Pepper and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 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 (in the method)
Main ingredient; they firm and curl as they cook, giving the filling its flavour and texture.
Bread crumbs (in the method)
Absorb the liquid in the stew and thicken the filling so it holds together.
Butter (in the method)
Adds fat for richness and a rounded flavour to the stewed oysters.
Milk (in the method)
Adds moisture to the stew, keeping the filling soft and creamy.
Cream
Adds richness and smoothness to the finished filling.

The step that matters

Stop stewing when the oyster edges curl. Oyster protein tightens and toughens with prolonged heat, so holding the stew past the curling point makes the oysters rubbery and dries the filling.

“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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