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Walled Oysters

A wall of mashed potatoes filled with oysters in a creamy sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Walled Oysters

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 the potato wall

  1. Form a wall 1.5 inches high and ¾ inch wide with the mashed potatoes on a platter.

  2. Glaze the potato wall with beaten egg.

  3. Bake the glazed potato wall in a 400°F (200°C) oven for a few minutes.

Poach the oysters

  1. In a saucepan, boil the liquor from the oysters and skim well.

  2. Add the oysters to the liquor, season with coarse sea salt, and boil briefly.

  3. Remove the oysters and set aside.

  4. Add milk or water to the liquor for soup (optional).

Make the cream dressing

  1. In a double boiler, combine cream, butter, pepper, and salt.

  2. Heat the mixture until warm.

  3. Mix the flour with some cream or milk until smooth.

  4. Add the flour mixture to the cream mixture.

  5. Cook until thickened.

  6. Fold the oysters into the cream dressing.

Assemble and serve

  1. Fill the potato wall with the mixture.

  2. Serve immediately.

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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Mashed potatoes
Form the edible wall that holds the creamy oyster filling.
Oysters
Supply the main seafood flavor and tender texture in the filling.
Rich cream
Adds richness and moisture to the sauce.
Butter
Adds fat and flavor to the cream dressing.
Flour
Thickens the cream dressing into a smooth sauce.
Beaten egg (in the method)
Glazes the potato wall so it browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Thickening the cream dressing. Flour must be mixed smooth with cream or milk before it goes in, otherwise it forms lumps. Cooking until thickened lets the starch swell and set the sauce, so it holds around the oysters.

“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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