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Stewed Oysters

A stew of oysters simmered in butter, pepper, salt, oyster liquor, milk, and served with crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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

Cook the oysters

  1. Melt the butter in a stew-pan over medium heat.

  2. Add black pepper and salt to the melted butter.

  3. Stir in the oyster liquor and bring to a boil.

  4. Strain the mixture and return it to the pan.

  5. Add the oysters and boil for five minutes.

Make the milk mixture and serve

  1. In a separate pot, combine the oyster liquor with milk and bring to a boil.

  2. Place a handful of crackers in a tureen and add the cooked oysters on top.

  3. Pour the hot milk mixture over the oysters and serve.

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

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

  3. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Oyster + milktop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,933 recipes

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

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Form the main body of the dish and supply its delicate, briny flavor.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel to the broth.
Oyster liquor
Carries the oysters' briny flavor and provides the liquid base of the stew.
Milk
Adds creaminess and softens the sharpness of the broth.
Crackers
Soak up the hot liquid and give the dish body and texture.
Pepper vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter and milk.

The step that matters

Boiling the oysters for five minutes. Prolonged boiling toughens oyster proteins and makes them shrink and taste rubbery. Keep the heat controlled so the oysters cook just until their edges curl.

“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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