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Oyster Pie

A pie of fresh oysters, pepper, coarse sea salt, spice, egg yolks, grated bread, baked in a crust.

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

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

  1. Drain part of the 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. Cover the oysters with their liquor and seasoning, bring to a boil, then remove from heat.

Assemble the pie

  1. Pour the oyster mixture into the prepared pie crust.

  2. Roll out the top crust and place it on the pie, crimping the edges.

  3. Cut a small square of paste, roll it up, and cut it into a double tulip shape.

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

  5. Cut out eight large leaves of paste and lay them on the lid.

  6. If concerned about overcooking the oysters, substitute pieces of bread to support the lid.

Bake and serve

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

  2. Once the crust is baked, carefully remove the lid and replace the bread with the oysters.

  3. 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, releasing briny liquor that seasons the custard-like mixture.
Yolks of eggs
Bind the filling and set during baking, giving it a richer, firmer texture.
Grated bread
Absorbs liquid from the oysters and helps give the filling body.

The step that matters

Bringing the oysters to a boil before filling. Briefly heating the oysters firms their texture and cooks off raw flavor, so they do not turn rubbery or leak excess liquid during baking.

“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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