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Snow Birds

A baked oyster pie with boiled salt pork, sliced potatoes, oyster juice, butter, and pie crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pork and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,668 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Snow Birds

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Clean the oysters thoroughly and remove the gills.

  2. Place a couple of oysters in a yellow-ware dish.

Assemble

  1. Add the boiled salt pork and sliced raw potatoes.

  2. Pour in the oyster juice and add butter, salt, and pepper.

  3. Cover the dish with a pie crust.

Bake

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden brown.

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. Pork + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

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

  4. Oyster + porktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,255 recipes

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

  5. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Provide the main seafood flavor and tender, briny texture in the filling.
Salt pork
Adds savory fat and flavor that carries through the filling.
Potatoes
Add starch that thickens the filling and gives it body.
Oyster juice
Supplies liquid and concentrated oyster flavor to the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and fat for flavor and a smooth mouthfeel.
Pie crust
Encloses the filling and browns in the oven to form a golden top.

The step that matters

Bake until golden brown. The filling must cook through while the crust browns. Pulling it too early leaves the potatoes firm and the crust pale, while overbaking can dry the filling and toughen the crust.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Potatothe original
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Onionfits less well
  4. Asparagusfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, pork, butter, pepper. 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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