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Oyster Filling for Patties

A creamy oyster filling for patties made with butter, flour, milk, eggs, cayenne, and mace.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mary Ronald · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 11 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 Filling for Patties

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oysters

  1. Use one dozen oysters.

  2. Scald the oysters in their liquor; drain and cut each one into four pieces with a silver knife.

Make the filling

  1. Measure 1 tablespoon of butter, 1 tablespoon of flour, 1 cup of milk or cream, yolks of 2 eggs, dash of cayenne, dash of mace.

  2. Put the butter into a saucepan, and when melted add the flour; cook, but not brown; then add the milk or cream, and stir until smooth; add the seasoning, and remove from the fire.

  3. When a little cooled add the beaten yolks, stirring vigorously; place again on the fire, and stir until thickened; then add the pieces of oysters.

  4. The filling should be soft and creamy, and the patty cases should be heated before the filling is put in.

Serve

  1. It may be served in bread-boxes, or in crusts prepared by removing the crumb from rolls, then browning them in the oven.

  2. Optionally, use equal quantity of oysters and mushrooms, either fresh or canned, and season well.

  3. Minced oysters and clams in equal parts, with some of their juice used in making the sauce, also make a good filling.

  4. The same mixture may be made into croquettes, in which case two tablespoonfuls of flour instead of one are used, also a few more oysters, and the sauce is allowed to become thicker.

Clams (alternative)

  1. Clams are served raw on the half shell during the months that oysters are out of season.

  2. Little Neck clams are best for this purpose, and the smaller they are the better.

  3. The manner of serving them is the same as for raw oysters. As many as ten or twelve are allowed for each person.

  4. To remove clams from the shells when wanted for cooking, wash the shells well with a brush and clear water.

  5. Place them in a saucepan or pot with a very little hot water; cover the pot, and let them steam until the shells open; strain the liquor through a fine cloth, or let it cool and settle; then pour it off carefully in order to free it from sand the shells may have contained.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

871Calories
37 gProtein
29 gFat
114 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 7 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Oyster6 medium (84g)81
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Macenot in our table0

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

By Mary Ronald. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + oystertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

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

  4. Oyster + eggtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,103 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, 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 savoury filling and briny flavour of the dish.
Butter
Enriches the base and carries flavour when melted with the flour.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth white sauce as it cooks.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, giving it a creamy body.
Eggs
Yolks enrich and thicken the sauce, giving it a soft, creamy texture.

The step that matters

Adding the beaten yolks. Stirring the yolks into a cooled sauce, then reheating gently, keeps them from scrambling. Stirring until thickened sets the yolks into a smooth, creamy filling.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, milk, oyster, egg):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, milk, oyster, egg. 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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