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Filling for Oyster Pates

A creamy oyster filling made with butter, flour, oyster liquor, cream, baking soda, oysters, and egg yolk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Filling for Oyster Pates

Ingredients

Directions

Make the oyster filling

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter and flour together until bubbling.

  2. Pour in the oyster liquor and mix with the cream and baking soda.

  3. Stir until the mixture is smooth and thick.

  4. Add the oysters and cook until the edges just begin to ruffle.

  5. Remove from heat and gradually beat in the egg yolk.

Serve

  1. Fill the pate shells 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.

  1. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + oystertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

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

  4. Oyster + eggtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,103 recipes

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

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Butter and flour
Form a roux that thickens the cream and oyster liquor into a smooth sauce.
Cream
Adds richness and body, helping the filling become smooth and thick.
Oyster liquor
Contributes briny oyster flavor and liquid to the sauce.
Oysters
Provide the main seafood flavor and texture of the filling.
Egg yolk
Enriches the filling and thickens it gently when beaten in off the heat.

The step that matters

Beat in the egg yolk off the heat. Egg yolk thickens by setting when heated. Adding it gradually to a hot mixture off the heat, while beating, tempers it so it blends smoothly instead of scrambling into lumps.

“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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