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Oyster Pie

A savory pie made with oysters, thinly sliced potatoes, milk, and a crust of flour and lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter 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 Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA very hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. In a pot, layer the sliced potatoes and pour the milk over them.

  2. Cover and cook on the stove until done, watching carefully to prevent burning.

  3. Once the potatoes are cool, place the oysters on top.

  4. Season lightly with salt and pepper, then add the oyster liquor and butter pieces.

Make the crust

  1. Prepare the pie crust by sifting together the flour and salt.

  2. Cut in the lard until the mixture resembles peas.

  3. Stir in the ice water with a fork and quickly form into a ball.

Assemble and bake

  1. Roll out the dough, cut slits or shapes in the center, and place over the oysters.

  2. Trim the edges.

  3. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 15 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.

  1. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, 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 savory filling that the crust encloses.
Potatoes
Add body and starch that thickens the milk-based filling as they cook.
Milk
Forms the moist, creamy base that cooks down with the potatoes.
All-purpose flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the crust its structure.
Lard
Coats flour particles so the crust turns out tender and flaky.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor to the filling and crust.

The step that matters

Keep the lard cold and cut it in until pea-sized. Cold fat pieces stay separate in the dough and melt in the oven, leaving layers that make the crust flaky. If the lard softens or is overworked, it blends into the flour and the crust turns dense and tough.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Potatothe original
  2. Shallotfits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Asparagusfits less well

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