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Oyster Pie

A savory pie made with fresh oysters, pepper, sea salt, spices, egg yolks, grated bread, and puff pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Oyster and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,545 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Oyster Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the filling

  1. Drain some liquor from the oysters and place them in a pan.

  2. Season the oysters with pepper, coarse sea salt, and spice, then stir well.

  3. Add the chopped egg and grated bread to the oysters.

  4. Pour the oysters and some of their liquor into a dish lined with puff pastry.

Decorate and bake

  1. Roll out the top pastry and place it over the filling, crimping the edges.

  2. Cut a small square of pastry, roll it up, and shape it into a double tulip.

  3. Make a slit in the center of the top crust and insert the tulip.

  4. Cut out eight large leaves of pastry and place them on top.

  5. Bake the pie in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

  6. Substitute pieces of bread to support the lid if concerned about overcooking the oysters.

  7. Remove the lid carefully.

  8. Take out the bread.

  9. Add the oysters.

  10. Replace the lid carefully.

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. Oyster + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,545 recipes

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

  2. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

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

  4. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

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

  5. Oyster + peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,663 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Fresh oysters
Provide the main filling and their briny liquor adds moisture and savory flavor.
Yolks of eggs
Bind the filling and help it set as it cooks.
Grated bread
Absorbs moisture from the oysters and helps give the filling body.
Puff pastry
Forms the crisp, flaky, layered crust that browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Keep the oysters from overcooking. Oysters turn tough and rubbery when overheated, so the lid is removed, the supporting bread is taken out, and the oysters are added late in the method.

“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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