Why it works: Butter and bread 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 Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the crust
Make a rich crust and roll it out twice as thick as for a fruit pie for the top crust, and the ordinary thickness for the lower crust.
Line a pudding dish with the lower crust and fill it with crusts of dry bread or light crackers.
Butter the edges of the dish to lift the upper crust without breaking.
Cover the pie with the thick upper crust, ornamenting the edges heavily.
Cook the oysters
Cook the oysters as for a stew, breaking in 2 eggs and thickening with 1 tablespoon of fine cracker crumbs or rice flour.
Cook the oysters for about 5 minutes, just until warmed through.
Serve
Lift the top crust, pour on the hot oysters seasoned with butter, pepper, and coarse sea salt, and serve immediately.
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.
-
Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,379 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
-
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Butter + oystertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,184 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
-
Bread + ricetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,259 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Flour and butter 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
- Flour
- Forms the structure of the rich crust that holds the pie together.
- Butter
- Adds richness and tenderness to the crust and flavor to the finished oysters.
- Eggs
- Enrich the oyster filling and help bind it as it cooks.
- Cracker crumbs or rice flour
- Thicken the oyster stew so it holds together rather than running out.
The step that matters
Cook the oysters just until warmed through. Oysters are delicate and become tough and shrunken when overcooked. Brief heating keeps them tender while the thickened liquid warms around them.
“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.
More oyster pie recipes
You might also like
Brown Bread461 recipes
Rice Fritters84 recipes
White Bread80 recipes
Bread Omelette60 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.