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An Oyster Pie with Sweet-breads

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

An Oyster Pie with Sweet-breads

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.

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Boil the sweetbreads for a few minutes, then slice them thinly.

  3. Line a dish with puff paste.

  4. Layer the bottom with bread crumbs, then add a layer of sweetbreads, followed by more bread crumbs and the oysters.

  5. Repeat the layers if necessary.

  6. Pour the oyster liquor over the layers, then add the essence of anchovy and veal gravy.

  7. Top with another layer of bread crumbs and dot with butter.

  8. Cover with a crust and bake until lightly golden.

  9. Just before serving, pour in warm gravy and a little lemon juice.

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. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Oyster + anchovytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together603 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. White pepper + macetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  5. Bread + anchovytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,260 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

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

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (nutmeg, mace, bread, oyster, anchovy, veal, butter):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against nutmeg, mace, bread, oyster, anchovy, veal, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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