Skip to main content
Main

Oystbb Stew

A stew of oysters, clams, and lobsters simmered with milk, cream, butter, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Ladies' Benevolent Society, First Congregational Church (Fall River, Mass .). Ladies' Benevolent Society, Mass.) First Congregational Church (Fall River · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cream and lobster are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,050 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Oystbb Stew

a soup for six

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oysters

  1. Add a cup of cold water to one quart of oysters.

  2. Drain the oysters in a colander over a bowl.

  3. Scald the oyster liquor.

  4. Skim carefully and return the oysters; heat over a quick fire to a simmering point.

  5. When the oysters look plump, add three cups of scalded milk and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Make the clam broth

  1. Use about thirty clams for a soup for six.

  2. Put the clams in a saucepan to boil in their own juice.

  3. After a few minutes, remove the clams with a strainer and chop them coarsely.

  4. Add a little more than a pint of water to the clam juice and return to a boil.

  5. In another saucepan, melt a tablespoonful of butter with a tablespoon and a half of flour, stirring until well combined.

  6. Pour the boiling water and clam juice into the butter-flour mixture, stirring slowly, and add salt.

  7. Add pepper, then add the chopped clams and let them boil for two or three minutes.

  8. In the soup, stir in the yolk of an egg beaten slightly, a pinch of ground mace or nutmeg, and half a pint of milk or cream, and pour the boiling clams and water over this mixture, stirring constantly to prevent curdling.

  9. If there is not enough clam juice, add more water and a little more milk.

Finish with the lobster

  1. Cut the meat of two small lobsters finely.

  2. Combine the lobster meat with one pint of cream and one pint of milk.

  3. Simmer for twenty minutes.

  4. Add one tablespoonful of flour wet in cold milk.

  5. Season with salt and cayenne pepper to taste.

  6. Just before serving, add half a cup of butter cut into small pieces and stir until fully absorbed.

  7. Strain the lobster mixture and serve hot.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

960Calories
52 gProtein
30 gFat
117 gCarbs

Counts 10 of 12 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 10 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Lobster100g cooked98
Oyster6 medium (84g)81
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot 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.

By Ladies' Benevolent Society, First Congregational Church (Fall River, Mass .). Ladies' Benevolent Society, Mass.) First Congregational Church (Fall River. 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. Cream + lobstertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,050 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Oyster + buttertop 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

Oysters
Main seafood; cooked gently until plump so they stay tender in the broth.
Milk
Forms the creamy liquid base and adds sweetness and body to the stew.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety mouthfeel to the stew.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a silky finish when stirred in at the end.
Flour
Thickens the liquid as its starch swells when heated.
Lobsters
Adds sweet, delicate meat that flavours the broth.

The step that matters

Stirring the egg-yolk mixture while adding the boiling liquid. Pouring boiling liquid onto beaten egg yolk can scramble it. Stirring constantly spreads the heat and keeps the egg smooth, so the soup does not curdle.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, milk, cream, flour, butter, lobster, 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.

More oyster stew recipes

Dry 4Virginia 4Chicken 3 See all 211 →

You might also like

Lobster SauceLobster Sauce174 recipesLobster CroquettesLobster Croquettes99 recipesMock Oyster SoupMock Oyster Soup21 recipesLobster BallsLobster Balls7 recipes