Name: Boston Oyster Pie
Ingredients: puff pastry or common pie crust; butter; oysters; pepper; coarse sea salt; butter; sweet cream or milk; 2 crackers

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Boston 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.

Butter the inside of a deep pie plate and line it with puff pastry or pie crust.
Prepare another sheet of pastry for the lid.
Place a clean towel in the dish to support the lid and bake the crust in a 400°F (200°C) oven until done.
Remove the lid and take out the towel.
Pick off any shell bits from the oysters and drain the liquor into a pan.
In a stewpan, combine the oysters with just enough liquor to prevent burning.
Season with pepper, coarse sea salt, and butter, then add a little sweet cream or milk and 2 finely rolled crackers.
Simmer the oysters gently, avoiding boiling.
Fill the baked crust with the oysters and gravy, replace the lid, and 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.

Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + oystertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,184 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Oyster + creamtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,886 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Oyster + peppertop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together7,663 recipes

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