Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
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.
Prepare the filling
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Place the oysters with their liquor in a small shallow pan.
Put a strong teacup upside down in the center of the pan.
Season the oysters with salt, pepper, and small lumps of butter.
Pour in 2-3 tablespoons of hot water.
Slice the hard-boiled eggs and layer them over the oysters.
Make the crust and bake
Make a short crust similar to biscuit dough, rolling it about 1 inch thick.
Cover the oysters with the crust, cutting a small slit over the teacup.
Bake until the crust is golden and cooked through.
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.
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,184 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Oyster + eggtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,103 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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.
- Hard-boiled eggs
- Add richness and body to the filling beneath the crust.
- Butter
- Adds richness and helps the crust brown as it bakes.
- Flour
- Forms the structure of the short crust that covers the filling.
The step that matters
Cutting the slit over the teacup. The teacup holds the crust up so steam can escape through the slit. Without a vent, pressure builds under the crust and can make the pie soggy or lift it unevenly.
“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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