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 ↓
A Pine 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
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Grease a baking dish and line it with puff pastry.
Assemble and bake
Season oysters with pepper and salt, then mix in butter and bread crumbs.
Place oyster mixture in dish without liquor and cover with strips of pastry.
Bake for 30 minutes.
If crust browns too quickly, cover it with doubled paper.
If pie looks dry, pour in boiled oyster liquor.
Serve immediately.
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 + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,184 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
-
Oyster + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,545 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,964 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Form the filling, providing the main flavour and texture of the pie.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture to the filling and helps browning of the crust.
- Bread crumbs
- Absorb moisture from the oysters and butter, giving the filling body.
- Puff pastry
- Forms the flaky crust that encloses and covers the filling.
The step that matters
Watching the crust and moisture while baking. Puff pastry browns quickly at 400°F, so it may need paper cover. Oysters without their liquor can dry out, so boiled liquor is added if the pie looks dry.
“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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