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Oyster Pie

A savory pie filled with oysters, cream, butter, and eggs, topped with bread crumbs and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. 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 the oysters

  1. Remove gills from oysters and drain them.

  2. Place oysters between clean napkins to dry.

Make the filling

  1. Combine half the oyster liquor, salt, cream, butter rolled in grated cracker, and a little Cayenne pepper in a stew-pan.

  2. Heat the mixture until boiling.

  3. Chop the hard-boiled eggs.

  4. Mix the eggs with enough bread crumbs to cover the pie top.

  5. Season the mixture with Cayenne pepper and salt.

  6. Make a rich paste.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line the sides of a pie dish with the paste.

  2. Add the oysters to the dish.

  3. Pour the hot liquor over the oysters.

  4. Strew the seasoned bread crumbs on top.

  5. Cover with a lid of paste.

  6. Cut an opening in the center of the top crust.

  7. Decorate with paste flowers or leaves.

  8. Bake at 400°F (200°C) until the crust is done.

  9. Serve hot.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Oyster + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,545 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Form the main filling, releasing savory liquor that flavors the pie.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, giving the filling a smooth, silky body.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavor through the filling.
Grated cracker
Thickens the hot liquor and gives the filling body as it absorbs moisture.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add body and richness to the seasoned crumb topping.

The step that matters

Pour the hot liquor over the oysters. The liquor must be boiling hot so the oysters cook gently in the pie and the cracker-thickened filling sets properly. Cold liquor leaves the oysters underdone and the filling thin.

“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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