Macaroni and cheese has nothing on oyster pie, which we believe might be the ultimate comfort food: A warm, sloppy, buttery, nutmeg and chile-spiced gratin of loosely heaped oysters and bread. It's a perfect winter treat — the one baked oyster dish that seems to celebrate the flavor of oysters rather than mask it.

Our friend Bobo Lee (no relation, alas) is the chef and owner of a small all-you-care-to-eat southern buffet attached to a gas station on Edisto Island, an agricultural island about 40 miles south of Charleston that used to be the epicenter of Sea Island cotton production. It's a banner day when we pull up to his buffet and find oyster pie among the offerings. Bobo is an accomplished chef and a lifelong outdoorsman, the sort of gentleman who can wrestle a wild boar into submission and locate the best patch of woods for chanterelle mushroom picking. He and his wife, Pam, do a fine business catering weddings and sophisticated barbecues (yes, there is such a thing; the luxury travel-planning outfit Butterfield & Robinson use their services extensively). If Bobo's particularly proud of the results, extra dishes from a Friday night catering gig might turn up on the Saturday lunch buffet. Bobo introduced us to our first oyster pie this way.

Now, when we put on an oyster roast, we set aside the stubborn oysters, the shreds, the ones that refuse to slip their shell in one piece, and shuck them and their liquor into a container, which we refrigerate. Then we use them in the next day's oyster pie.

What to drink: A mellow white Burgundy with a little age, or a German Gewurztraminer or Riesling with some spice would complement the faint nutmeg and brine of oyster pie.

For 6 people

TIME: 1½ hours

INGREDIENTS

2 cups shucked oysters (about 24 medium oysters), with liquor (see Sourcery, page 76, from the Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook)

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for greasing the pan

1½ cups roughly chopped white mushrooms (about ¼ pound)

½ cup chopped shallot or yellow onion (about 1 large shallot or 1 small onion)

1 cup chopped celery (about 2 stalks with tops)

1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste

½ teaspoon ground cayenne or other hot red chile

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

¼ teaspoon yellow mustard seeds, smashed

¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste

1¼ cups heavy cream

5 thin slices white bread, such as Pepperidge Farm, crusts cut off, toasted

2 tablespoons chopped chives or scallions

1 recipe Savory Pie Crust (page 510) from the Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook)