I Tried Cooking A Recipe From The 1910s

- Doesn't smell horrible. Okay, there's the smell. Yup that's pungent. (Light upbeat music) Hi, I'm Alix, and I love
cooking and history.

Throughout history there have been hundreds of food trends
that have come and gone. Today, I'm gonna be trying
out one of these recipes and seeing if it's edible. Okay, Oyster and Chicken Pie. (Light upbeat music) It's very vague, very under-seasoned, seems a little random and weird.

I feel like when you see a
pie, like a chicken-pot-pie, it's really like, comforting
and warm and inviting. If I dove into this pie,
I'd be very disappointed. I guess I'm just gonna go line by line. The first thing to do
is parboil a chicken.

I have no idea how much
chicken I'm suppose to boil, but I have, I guess,
four breasts right here, so we'll go with that. It immediately turns white. I'm also gonna be hard-boiling
the eggs at the same time. Nice chicken water in here, which is pretty fowl.

(Chuckles) It looks a little like human flesh. We're off to a good start here. - [Woman] Wanna hear a fact. - Yeah sure.

(Smooth jazz music) I guess, yeah, actually
oysters are an aphrodisiac, so I guess everyone's really
horny back in the day. (Laughs) Cool down a little before I peel them, and then we're gonna cut up this partially cooked chicken. They're looking nice and white. (Upbeat psychedelic music) Over this, place, oh great,
we're at the oyster part.

So, over this chicken,
place one pint of oysters. Doesn't say to drain
them, but I'm going to, because I don't know if
I'd wanna pour, like, oyster juice all over this chicken. Product may contain shell fragments. That seems dangerous.

Ohhhh. Okay I'm just gonna air
it out for a second. I'm not even exaggerating,
that is so strong. Okay.

(Upbeat, jazzy music) Alright, next. If I can make it. Add two hard-boiled eggs,
cut into small pieces. Whoever invented this recipe was like, what else can we put on top of this.

But, at least it adds, like,
a nice pop of color, I guess. A tablespoonful of butter. Do I just put it in the middle like, or am I suppose to cut it up? Like, there's no internet in these days so you would think that they would be more detailed with the recipes. I guess I'm just gonna
just cut the tablespoon up and like put it in each third.

Some celery, chopped fine. What is, some celery? I'm guessing it's more than one stock, less than three. (Upbeat, futuristic music) We're gonna put this finely
chopped celery on top. Celery's also very bland,
it's basically water.

(Upbeat, jazzy music) Yikes, that sounds like a problem. Yeah, I can't wait to eat this now. Now, for the seasoning. They say salt and cayenne,
which is a little bizarre.

I don't wanna get too heavy handed with this cayenne right now but actually, maybe I should. I prefer my mouth be numb
when I bite into this. (Laughs) Yeah, this is actually
the most confusing part. Moisten with flour and and a gill of milk.

Still don't know what a gill of milk is. I fortunately am not from the
1910s and I have a cellphone, so I'm gonna look up
what a gill of milk is. Okay, it's a half a cup. I guess I'm just gonna go for it.

So if it's like a half cup, oop, okay. I'm assuming I have to stir it up because I feel like that
would be really bizarre. The milk at the bottom is now like the oyster chicken juice water. Put the puff paste on top.

They don't call it puff pastry,
they call it puff paste. So, I guess in the 1910s you had to make your own puff pastry, but that's like, really fuckin' hard, so I will not be doing that. (Upbeat, modern music) Maybe I'll use these scraps to make a little design on top. I feel like I should make an oyster design just so people know what
they're getting into.

My oyster kinda looks like a vagina. So, I'm gonna do an egg wash on this even though it doesn't
say that in the recipe. I want this to at least look pretty if it's not going to taste very good. Also, they didn't tell us
how hot the oven should be.

40 Minutes in a moderate oven. I'm gonna say moderate is, 350. (Upbeat, futuristic music) Alright, so, it's been 40 minutes. Was the fastest 40 minutes of my life, 'cause now I have to try this pie.

Something I've been dreading. (Upbeat, optimistic music) How bad can it be? I don't know if I can... - [Producer] Oh no. (Mumbling) - Oh man, I need someone
else to try this though because I don't know if
it's just me, and like, I don't really like oysters that much.

(Upbeat, optimistic music) - I don't think it's that
bad, I'm kind of into it. - Ooooh. - The whiff is not promising. - Yeah, I can't say
that's a pleasant smell.

- I wouldn't go out of my way to eat this, but I would stop eating it if
I was being polite to someone. - It's not totally
offensive or undelicious. Are there potatoes in here? - It tastes like, if I was a character in
Spongebob Squarepants, and I just ingested
like, all of the ocean. - I don't hate it, I'll say that.

- No, it's not, it's not good. - Like I don't understand why any of this being together was
necessary in any capacity. - It's a taste that some
people might prefer, and we don't flavor shame. If you didn't have taste
buds, you might think, hey, this is probably a pretty good pie.

- It's like the ingredients were held together by Elmer's glue. - It is a little bit hard
to eat, to be honest. (Upbeat, acoustic music).