Skip to main content
Main

Oyster Loaf

A loaf of bread filled with oysters, parsley, milk or cream, butter, salt, pepper, Tabasco sauce, and oyster liquor, baked until hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Oyster Loaf

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 loaf

  1. Cut an oblong piece from the top of the loaf of bread.

  2. Butter the walls of the loaf.

Fill and bake

  1. Fill the loaf with oysters, adding parsley, milk or cream, small bits of butter, salt, pepper, and Tabasco sauce.

  2. Replace the top crust on the loaf.

  3. Place the loaf in a baking dish.

  4. Pour oyster liquor over it.

  5. Cover the loaf.

  6. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes, basting with the oyster liquor.

Serve

  1. Carefully lift the loaf onto a platter.

  2. Serve hot, cutting into slices.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Butter + oystertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread loaf
Forms a hollow crust container that holds the filling while it bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the bread walls brown while baking.
Oysters
Provide the main filling, releasing juices that moisten the bread as it bakes.
Milk or cream
Adds moisture and richness, giving the filling a softer, creamier texture.
Oyster liquor
Adds briny flavour and moisture when poured over and used for basting.

The step that matters

Cover the loaf before baking. Covering traps steam so the oysters cook gently and the filling stays moist while the bread crust heats through. Basting with the oyster liquor during baking keeps the bread from drying out.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Celeryfits less well

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

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesBread OmeletteBread Omelette60 recipesOatmeal BreadOatmeal Bread51 recipes