Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Oyster Pie
Ingredients
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).
Line a deep dish with pastry and place a teacup upside down in the center.
Add the oysters, salt, pepper, butter, and flour, using only a little of the oyster liquor.
Moisten the edges of the under crust and sprinkle flour before pinching the top crust down.
Make a wide incision in the upper crust.
Bake and serve
Bake for 1 hour.
When the pie is nearly done, pour in the sweet cream or milk through the incision.
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 + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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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 + creamtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,886 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 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 filling and delicate briny flavor of the pie.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat that carries flavor through the filling.
- Flour
- Thickens the filling as it bakes, giving it a body rather than a watery texture.
- Oyster liquor
- Adds moisture and concentrated oyster flavor to the filling.
- Sweet cream or milk
- Poured in near the end to add richness and a creamy texture to the filling.
The step that matters
Pouring in the cream or milk. Adding the cream near the end, rather than at the start, keeps it from overcooking and curdling or separating in the oven. The teacup and incision let it reach the filling without the crust being lifted or the pie being opened early.
“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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