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Oyster Pie

A savory pie made with oysters, cream, butter, crackers, eggs, and pastry crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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. Remove the gills from the oysters and drain them.

  2. Place the oysters between clean napkins to dry.

  3. Pour off half the oyster liquor into a saucepan and season with salt.

  4. Stir in the cream, butter, grated cracker, and cayenne pepper; heat until combined.

Make the filling

  1. Chop the hard-boiled eggs and mix with enough bread crumbs to cover the pie.

  2. Season the egg and bread mixture with cayenne pepper and salt.

Assemble and bake

  1. Roll out the pastry and line the sides of a pie dish.

  2. Place the oysters in the dish and pour the hot liquor mixture over them.

  3. Sprinkle the bread crumb mixture on top and cover with a lid of pastry.

  4. Cut an opening in the center of the top crust and decorate with pastry shapes.

  5. Bake at 400°F (200°C) until the crust is golden brown, then serve hot.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Form the main filling and provide the briny, savory flavor of the pie.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the hot filling a smooth, rounded texture.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, helping the liquor mixture become a smooth sauce.
Grated cracker
Thickens the liquor mixture so it binds around the oysters.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add body and a firm, crumbly texture to the bread crumb topping.

The step that matters

Pour the hot liquor mixture over the oysters. The oysters should be heated through and kept from overcooking; the hot sauce gently warms them while the pie bakes, and a well-thickened mixture keeps the filling moist rather than watery.

“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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