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Darioles of Oysters

A steamed pastry filled with oysters, eggs, and milk, seasoned with nutmeg, cayenne, salt, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Darioles of Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the oysters

  1. Remove gills from oysters.

  2. Scald oysters in their liquor.

  3. Strain the oysters.

  4. Cut each oyster into 4 or 5 pieces. Set the pieces aside.

Make the custard base

  1. In a saucepan, combine flour and butter.

  2. Add the oyster liquor and milk, stirring until boiling.

  3. Add seasoning and beaten eggs.

  4. Fold in the oysters.

Steam

  1. Butter some Dariole moulds.

  2. Pour in the mixture.

  3. Steam gently for 20 minutes.

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. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  3. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + oystertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, 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

Eggs
Bind the mixture and set into a firm, tender custard when steamed.
Flour
Thickens the milk and oyster liquor into a smooth sauce that holds the oysters.
Butter
Adds richness and smoothness to the sauce base.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that gives the custard its body and softness.
Oysters
Provide the main savoury flavour and tender pieces throughout the custard.

The step that matters

Add the beaten eggs to the hot sauce. If the sauce is too hot when the eggs go in, they can scramble into lumps instead of blending smoothly. Off-heat blending and gentle steaming give a smooth, set custard.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, egg, butter, milk, oyster, nutmeg):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits about as well
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, egg, butter, milk, oyster, nutmeg. 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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