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Oyster Pie

A savory pie with oysters, butter, bread crumbs, milk, egg yolks, and a pie crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Oyster Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Strain the liquor from the oysters and boil it with butter and pepper.

  2. Mix bread crumbs and milk, then add to the boiling mixture.

  3. After boiling for a few minutes, add the oysters and cook for 5 minutes.

  4. Remove from heat and stir in the beaten yolks of 3 eggs.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line a buttered dish with the pie crust and fill it with white paper or a clean napkin.

  2. Cover with another layer of pie crust and bake until lightly browned.

  3. Remove the lid and take out the paper or napkin.

  4. Pour in the oysters.

  5. Bake for a few more minutes before serving 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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

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

  5. Oyster + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,545 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Provide the main flavour and the seafood body of the pie filling.
Egg yolks
Thicken the filling as they set, giving it a rich, custard-like texture.
Bread crumbs
Soak up the liquid and help thicken the filling into a soft mass.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the boiled liquor.
Milk
Adds moisture and softens the bread crumbs into the filling.

The step that matters

Stir the yolks in off the heat. Egg yolks begin to set around 160°F and can scramble if added to a boiling mixture. Removing the pan from heat first lets them thicken the filling smoothly instead of curdling.

“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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