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Creamed Oysters

A creamy oyster dish made by simmering milk with butter, flour, salt, clove, nutmeg, and oysters, served on buttered toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Creamed Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cream

  1. When the milk boils, stir into it the butter, into which the flour has been rubbed.

  2. Season with clove and a slight grating of nutmeg, and salt.

Add the oysters and serve

  1. When creamy, add the oysters without their liquor.

  2. Allow them to be just heated through.

  3. Serve on thin strips of buttered toast.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

806Calories
31 gProtein
24 gFat
114 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Oyster6 medium (84g)81
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

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. See the original page.

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. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Milk + buttertop 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. Butter + flourtop 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).

Butter and flour 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

Milk
Forms the liquid base of the cream sauce.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a creamy sauce as it heats.
Butter
Adds richness and smooth mouthfeel to the cream.
Oysters
Provide the main ingredient, gently warmed so they stay tender.

The step that matters

Allow them to be just heated through. Oysters toughen and shrink when overheated, so they should be warmed only until heated through, not simmered or boiled.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits about as well
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, flour, 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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