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Oyster Cakes

A baked dish of oysters mixed with sauce, egg, and breadcrumbs, then baked in paper bags.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Oyster Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA fairly hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a fairly hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the mixture

  1. Remove the beards from the oysters and place them with the oyster liquid in a basin.

  2. Mix in the rich white sauce, a little cream, and 1 or 2 egg yolks.

  3. Add the bread crumbs or crushed crackers and divide the oysters into quarters, mixing them in.

  4. Season with salt, pepper, and cayenne.

  5. Whisk the egg whites to a stiff froth and fold them into the mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Spoon the mixture into 1 or 2 well-buttered paper bags and fasten the ends.

  2. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for about 20 minutes.

  3. Slit open the bags, remove the cakes, and place them on a hot dish.

  4. Garnish with parsley and lemon slices before serving.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Sauce + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Provide the main flavour and the bulk of the cakes.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture and add richness to hold the cakes together.
Egg whites
Whisked to a froth, they lighten the mixture and help it puff while baking.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the mixture body so it holds its shape.
Rich white sauce
Adds moisture and creaminess and helps bind the mixture.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whisked whites trap air that gives lift; if they are deflated or overmixed, the cakes bake up dense and flat. Fold gently so the air stays in.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, oyster, cream, egg, bread, pepper, butter. 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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