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Oyster Gumbo

A stew of chicken, oysters, and fillet in a brown roux with lard, flour, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and oyster work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 360 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Oyster Gumbo

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Heat the lard in a pot and add the flour; cook until very brown.

  2. Add the chicken pieces and fry until browned.

  3. Pour in the cold water and add the minced ham; let it boil slowly for 3 hours.

Finish and serve

  1. One hour before serving, add oyster liquor to reach desired quantity and season with red and black pepper; boil closely.

  2. About 15 minutes before serving, add the oysters and let them curl up and become firm.

  3. Remove from heat and add enough fillet to achieve a consistency slightly thinner than mush.

  4. Return to heat and boil for no more than 5 minutes.

  5. Serve immediately, as it will thin out if left to stand.

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. Ham + oystertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together360 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  2. Chicken + hamtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,497 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Chicken + oystertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together972 recipes

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

  4. Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  5. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Browned in the lard to form a roux that thickens and flavors the gumbo.
Chicken
Releases flavor into the broth during long simmering and adds body.
Oysters
Add briny flavor and become firm and tender when briefly cooked.
Fillet
Thickens the gumbo to a mushy consistency as it is stirred in off heat.
Lard
Carries fat for frying and helps build the roux's rich, toasted flavor.

The step that matters

Adding the oysters. Oysters turn rubbery when overcooked. Adding them about 15 minutes before serving lets them just curl and firm while staying tender.

“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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