Name: Oyster Pie
Ingredients: 2 cans of oysters or 3 pints of solid oysters; 1 quart of cream; 1 dozen rolled crackers; Pepper to taste; Coarse sea salt to taste; Thick puff pastry for lining and covering the dish

Why it works: Oyster and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,886 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Oyster Pie

Ingredients

2 cans of oysters or 3 pints of solid oysters
1 quart of cream
1 dozen rolled crackers
Pepper to taste
Coarse sea salt to taste
Thick puff pastry for lining and covering the dish

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, stir together the oysters, cream, rolled crackers, pepper, and salt.
Line a baking dish with thick puff pastry.
Pour the oyster mixture into the lined dish.

Bake

Cover with another layer of puff pastry.
Bake for 45 minutes.

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.

Oyster + creamtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,886 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Oyster + peppertop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together7,663 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Cream + peppertop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together21,449 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Cream and pepper 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: Provide the main filling and their briny, savoury flavour.
Cream: Adds moisture and richness, helping the filling turn silky as it bakes.
Rolled crackers: Absorb liquid and thicken the filling so it holds together when sliced.
Puff pastry: Forms the flaky top and bottom crust, browning and puffing in the oven.

“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.