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Oyster Patties

A savory patty made from oysters, butter, flour, cream or milk, seasoned with pepper, salt, mace, and egg yolk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Oyster Patties

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oysters

  1. Scald the oysters in their own liquor.

  2. Strain the oysters.

Make the sauce

  1. Heat the butter in a pan.

  2. Stir in the flour until smooth, without browning.

  3. Add enough cream or milk to the oyster liquor to make a pint.

  4. Season with pepper, salt, and a little mace.

  5. Slowly add the mixture to the flour.

  6. Stir until thick.

  7. If using milk, stir in the egg yolk just before removing from heat.

Assemble

  1. Heat the oysters in the liquor.

  2. Fill the patty shells.

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

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

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

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, 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 flavor and texture of the filling.
Butter
Enriches the sauce and carries flavor when the flour is cooked in it.
Flour
Thickens the butter and cream mixture into a smooth sauce.
Cream or milk
Forms the body of the sauce, adding richness and creaminess.
Egg yolk
Enriches and thickens the sauce slightly when stirred in off the heat.

The step that matters

Stir the sauce until thick, without browning the flour. Flour must be cooked smooth in butter without browning so it thickens cleanly. Adding the liquid slowly and stirring constantly prevents lumps. Stirring in the egg yolk off the heat keeps it from curdling.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, butter, flour, cream, pepper, egg, milk):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, butter, flour, cream, pepper, egg, milk. 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.

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