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Oyster Pie

A baked pie of oysters, butter, salt, cracker crumbs, milk, oyster liquor, and egg yolks, encased in biscuit pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Oyster Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Line a pudding dish with the rich biscuit pastry.

Assemble

  1. Layer in half of the oysters and season with butter and salt.

  2. Add a layer of cracker crumbs, then the remaining oysters and seasoning.

  3. Pour in the milk and some oyster liquor.

Bake and serve

  1. Cover with the pastry crust and bake for 30 minutes.

  2. Mix the chopped egg yolks with cracker crumbs and sprinkle on top before serving.

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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Biscuit + oystertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together183 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Biscuit + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,009 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Form the main filling and supply the briny, savoury flavour of the pie.
Milk
Adds moisture and turns the filling creamy as it bakes.
Cracker crumbs
Absorb liquid and give the filling body so it holds together when cut.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour through the filling.
Rich biscuit pastry
Forms the crust that encloses the filling and holds it during baking.
Egg yolks
Add richness and a soft, savoury finish to the topping.

The step that matters

Bake for 30 minutes under the crust. Oysters toughen and shrink when overcooked, so the filling should be heated just until set and cooked through, not longer.

“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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