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Oyster Patties

A baked patty of oysters, pastry, and a creamy sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Oyster Patties

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 cases

  1. Line patty pans with thin pastry, pressing it well into the tin.

  2. Place a piece of bread or a ball of paper in each pan.

  3. Cover with pastry and brush with egg white.

  4. Cut 1‑inch squares of thin pastry, place in the center of each, glaze with egg, and bake at 400 °F (200 °C) for 15‑20 minutes.

  5. Remove the bread or paper when half cold.

Make the oyster filling

  1. Scald the oysters in their own liquor, cut each into four, and strain the liquor.

  2. In a thick saucepan, melt butter and flour over heat until the flour smells cooked.

  3. Pour in oyster liquor and milk (or cream) and stir until thick and smooth.

  4. Add the oysters and let them boil once.

  5. Remove from heat and stir in beaten egg yolks until the sauce resembles thick custard.

Fill and serve

  1. Fill the patties with the oyster mixture, keeping them hot in boiling water before serving.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  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 flavour and texture of the filling.
Butter
Enriches the sauce and carries flavour, with flour forming a smooth base.
Flour
Thickens the butter and liquid into a smooth white sauce.
Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce into a custard-like texture when gently stirred in off the heat.
Milk or cream
Adds liquid and richness, helping the sauce become smooth and creamy.
Egg white
Glazes the pastry, giving it a shiny, golden finish when baked.

The step that matters

Stir the egg yolks in off the heat. Yolks thicken by gentle heat; if the sauce is too hot when they go in, they can scramble and turn grainy instead of smooth and custard-like.

“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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