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Mushroom and Oyster Stuffing for Turkey

A bread stuffing for turkey made with oysters and mushrooms, bound with a thickened oyster liquor and cream sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Mushroom and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,580 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Mushroom and Oyster Stuffing for Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stuffing

  1. Grate a small loaf of stale bread into a bowl.

  2. Season the bread with salt, pepper, celery seed and a little ground mace.

  3. Add a pint of small oysters that have been well drained and half a pint of button mushrooms.

Make the sauce

  1. Heat half a pint of oyster liquor in a saucepan.

  2. Moisten the cornstarch in cold water first.

  3. As the liquor is about to boil, stir in a teaspoonful of cornstarch, two portions of butter and two tablespoonfuls of cream, and be sure that it boils.

Finish

  1. When cold, gradually blend the sauce with the other ingredients and use.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

608Calories
25 gProtein
9 gFat
104 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 8 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Oyster6 medium (84g)81
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Mushroom1/2 cup sliced (35g)15
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Liquornot in our table0
Macenot in our table0

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. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Cream + mushroomtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,500 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Cream + oystertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,886 recipes

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

  5. Oyster + mushroomtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,299 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

Pepper and mace barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 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 savory flavor and a tender, briny texture to the stuffing.
Button mushrooms
Add earthy flavor and soft, moist bulk to the stuffing.
Oyster liquor
Supplies concentrated oyster flavor and forms the base of the sauce.
Cornstarch
Thickens the liquid into a smooth sauce that binds the stuffing.
Cream
Adds richness and a silky texture to the sauce.
Stale bread (in the method)
Forms the absorbent base that soaks up the sauce and holds the stuffing together.

The step that matters

Bring the sauce to a boil. Cornstarch only thickens fully once the liquid reaches a boil. Stopping early leaves the sauce thin and can leave a raw starchy taste.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, oyster, mushroom, pepper):

  1. Celeryfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, oyster, mushroom, 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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