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 ↓
Oyster Patties
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Combine flour, salt, and butter in a bowl until crumbly.
Gradually add ice water, a few drops at a time, until the dough is stiff.
Roll the dough very thin and place it in individual patty pans.
Make the filling
Rub together 2 tablespoons of butter and 1 tablespoon of flour for the filling.
Moisten the mixture with water, then add the milk and cook in a double boiler until thickened.
Boil the oysters in their liquor until the edges curl, then skim them into the cream mixture.
Bake and serve
Fill the patty shells with the oyster filling, cover with a top crust, and bake.
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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + oystertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,184 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter 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
- Flour
- Forms the dough structure and, with butter, thickens the cream filling.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a tender, flaky crust and enriches the filling.
- Milk
- Forms the base of the cream sauce that surrounds the oysters.
- Oysters
- Provide the main flavor and texture of the filling.
The step that matters
Boil the oysters until the edges curl. Oysters cook quickly; overcooking toughens them and makes them rubbery, while stopping at curled edges keeps them tender in the hot cream.
“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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