Skip to main content
Main

Fricassee of Oysters

A creamy oyster dish made by simmering oysters, butter, flour, and oyster liquor, then thickening with eggs, lemon, nutmeg, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mansfield, W. H., & co., Putnam, Conn., pub. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Lemon and nutmeg 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 ↓

Fricassee of Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oysters

  1. Place one quart of oysters in their liquor on the fire.

  2. When they begin to boil, strain them through a colander, leaving the oysters in the colander.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, melt butter the size of an egg.

  2. When the butter bubbles, sprinkle in a tablespoonful of sifted flour and cook for a minute without turning brown, stirring well with a wire whisk.

  3. Add one cup of oyster liquor to the sauce.

  4. Remove the sauce from the fire and whisk in the yolks of two eggs, a little salt, a little cayenne pepper, one teaspoonful of lemon juice, and one grated nutmeg.

  5. Beat the mixture well, then return it to the fire to set the eggs without boiling.

  6. Add the oysters back into the sauce.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

740Calories
30 gProtein
21 gFat
105 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 7 ingredients. The other 1 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
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Oyster6 medium (84g)81
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Liquornot 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.

By Mansfield, W. H., & co., Putnam, Conn., pub. [from old catalog]. 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. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  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. Oyster + eggtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,103 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, 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 substance and delicate briny flavor of the fricassee.
Butter
Enriches the sauce and carries flavor, giving it a smooth, rich body.
Sifted flour
Thickens the sauce as it cooks with the butter into a roux.
Eggs
Yolks thicken and enrich the sauce when gently heated, giving it a creamy texture.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich sauce and balances the oysters.

The step that matters

Returning the egg-enriched sauce to the fire. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat but curdle and turn grainy if they boil. Keep the sauce below a boil and stir constantly so it sets smooth.

Swap the lemon

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

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

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

You might also like

Lemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesMock Oyster SoupMock Oyster Soup21 recipesCorn FrittersCorn Fritters6 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipes