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Oyster Pie

A baked pie with fresh oysters, butter, egg yolks, bread crumbs, and a crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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

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

  1. Prepare a pie crust for a large baking dish.

  2. Season the oysters with pepper, coarse sea salt, and butter.

  3. Mix the chopped egg yolks with the grated bread crumbs.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place the oysters in the dish and sprinkle the bread crumb mixture on top.

  2. Pour the oyster liquor over the oysters, cover with pie crust, and bake at 400°F (200°C) until golden.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Oyster + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,545 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Fresh oysters
Form the main filling and provide the briny, savory flavor of the pie.
Hard boiled egg yolks
Add richness and a soft, crumbly texture to the filling topping.
Grated bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and form a layer that helps keep the filling from being runny.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the seasoning spread over the oysters.

The step that matters

Pour the oyster liquor over the oysters. The liquid from the oysters is salty and flavorful, and it keeps the filling moist while baking. Adding it before covering helps the pie cook through without drying out.

“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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