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Oyster Pie

A savory pie of oysters and sweetbreads baked in a biscuit dough with gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and biscuit work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 841 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. 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. Boil sweetbreads in water for 30 minutes, then let cool and separate with a fork.

  2. Make a rich gravy using the cooking liquid from the sweetbreads.

  3. Prepare a dough for baking powder biscuits, substituting butter for lard.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line the bottom and sides of a pan with the dough.

  2. Layer oysters and sweetbreads in equal portions, sprinkling with pepper, salt, and bits of butter.

  3. Add a layer of gravy, then repeat layering until all ingredients are used.

  4. Cover with remaining dough and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes 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. Pepper + biscuittop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together841 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

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

  3. Oyster + biscuittop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together183 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  4. Butter + biscuittop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,009 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Give the pie its distinctive briny flavor as they cook in the layers.
Sweetbreads
Provide tender, soft texture and rich flavor that fills the pie.
Gravy
Adds moisture so the filling stays juicy rather than drying out in the oven.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor to the dough and filling, and helps the crust brown.

The step that matters

Layering the filling and gravy. Gravy should be added between layers so the filling stays moist while baking. Layering evenly distributes the oysters and sweetbreads so no section ends up dry or overly rich.

“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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