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Stewed Oysters

A soup of oysters simmered in oyster liquor, cream, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Stewed Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the liquor

  1. Drain and wash the oysters, removing all shell particles.

  2. Boil and skim the oyster liquor.

Make the stew

  1. Add hot cream to the liquor to make the desired quantity of soup.

  2. In a small bowl, rub the flour smooth in a little cold milk.

  3. If using milk, rub the butter with the flour.

  4. Season the mixture with pepper, salt, and mace if desired.

  5. When very hot, add the oysters and serve as soon as they are puffed and curled.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Provide the main flavor and tender texture; they cook within moments and toughen if overcooked.
Oyster liquor
Supplies the briny, savory base flavor of the soup.
Hot cream
Adds richness, body and a smooth, velvety mouthfeel from its fat.
Flour
Thickens the liquid as its starch swells when heated, giving the soup body.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, rounding out the flavor and texture of the soup.

The step that matters

Adding the oysters and serving promptly. Oysters cook in moments. Once the liquid is very hot, they firm up and toughen with extra heat, so serve as soon as their edges puff and curl.

Swap the mace

The recipe marks mace as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, cream, flour, butter, milk, pepper):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, cream, flour, butter, milk, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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