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Oyster Pudding

A steamed savory pudding made with oysters, milk, cream, eggs, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Whiting and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 236 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Oyster Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish and oysters

  1. Skin the whitings.

  2. Remove all the meat from the bones.

  3. Pound the meat in a mortar.

  4. Remove the beards from the oysters.

  5. Cut the oysters into dice.

Make the base

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add the flour.

  3. Cook over medium heat without browning.

  4. Moisten with the milk and oyster liquor, stirring briskly until smooth.

  5. Add the cream.

  6. Cook a little longer while stirring continuously.

Finish and steam

  1. Add the diced oysters to the mixture.

  2. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

  3. Work in the yolks of the eggs and the anchovy essence.

  4. Whisk the egg whites to a stiff froth.

  5. Carefully fold the egg whites into the mixture.

  6. Fill a well‑buttered soufflé tin or charlotte mold three‑quarters full.

  7. Steam for about 45 minutes.

  8. Unmold.

  9. Serve with a white sauce.

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. Whiting + saucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together236 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Whiting + anchovytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together82 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Anchovy + oystertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together603 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks enrich the custard and the whites, whisked and folded in, lighten the pudding so it rises and sets airy.
Flour
Forms a roux with the butter that thickens the milk and cream into a stable, smooth base.
Whitings
Pounded flesh gives the pudding its main body and savoury fish flavour.
Oysters
Diced pieces add briny flavour and tender bites throughout the pudding.
Milk
Liquid that, with the roux, forms the custard-like base and keeps the pudding moist.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites whisked to a stiff froth trap air that gives lift. Folding gently keeps that air in; stirring or deflating them makes the pudding dense and flat.

“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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