Skip to main content
Main

Canapes Db Crabs d'Huitres a LA Savoy — Oyster Crab Canapes Savoy Style

Oyster crab canapés made with oyster crabs, mushrooms, cream sauce, and egg yolks in bread crusts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Mushroom and sherry are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,176 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Canapes Db Crabs d'Huitres a LA Savoy — Oyster Crab Canapes Savoy Style

Oven, in the book's wordsA medium oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a medium oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the bread

  1. Cut slices of bread ¼ inch thick from the sandwich loaf.

  2. Use a 2‑inch round pastry cutter to cut out crusts and scoop out one side to form a cavity.

  3. Fry the crusts in butter until light in color.

Make the filling

  1. Chop the fresh mushrooms finely and cook in butter until moisture is rendered.

  2. Add the oyster crabs and moisten with sherry; cook for a few minutes.

  3. Stir in the thick cream sauce and bind with egg yolks; season and let cool.

  4. Fill the crusts with the oyster crab mixture.

  5. Cook additional fresh mushrooms in butter and fill with the oyster crab mixture.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place one filled mushroom on each crust, mushroom top facing up.

  2. Arrange the canapes in a buttered pan and bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for about 10 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. Mushroom + sherrytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,176 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).

  2. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  4. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Crab + creamtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together317 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

Oyster crabs
Provide the main seafood flavor and the filling's central texture.
Egg yolks
Bind the filling and help it set lightly when baked.
Thick cream sauce
Adds moisture and richness so the filling stays creamy rather than dry.
Fresh mushrooms
Add earthy flavor and moisture to the filling and topping.
Sandwich loaf
Forms the crisp buttered bread cases that hold the filling.
Sherry
Adds aromatic acidity and depth that complements the seafood.

The step that matters

Cool the filling before filling the crusts. Egg yolks bound into a warm cream mixture can scramble or thin if overheated, and a hot filling softens the fried crusts. Letting it cool lets the yolks set gently and keeps the bread crisp.

“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.

You might also like

Mushroom SoupMushroom Soup60 recipesCrab SoupCrab Soup39 recipesMock Oyster SoupMock Oyster Soup21 recipesCorn FrittersCorn Fritters6 recipes