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Oysters a LA Maryland

Oysters cooked with cream, wine, eggs, and seasonings, served hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Hamilton, Ohio. First Methodist Episcopal church. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Oysters a LA Maryland

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oysters

  1. Blanch the oysters, and skim off any scum or refuse from the liquor of the oysters.

  2. Mix the oysters, bread crumbs, eggs, salt, pepper, thyme, parsley, lemon juice, and grated rind of half a lemon thoroughly together.

Make the sauce

  1. Add pure cream, and boil for a short time, adding a little white wine.

  2. Thicken with a little yolk of an egg, flavoring with lemon juice, salt, cayenne pepper, and nutmeg.

  3. Put 2 large tablespoons of butter in a skillet; fry 1 small onion until it is a light brown, cut.

  4. Add 4 thin slices of a garlic clove and toss through the onion.

  5. Add oysters, and stir gently until oysters are cooked. Do not cook too long.

Bake and serve

  1. Fill oyster shells (or a baking dish), sprinkle top with fine, browned bread crumbs, and bake just long enough to be real hot, but not until they are dry.

  2. To serve, place a piece of butter in the center of each, and garnish with parsley and a slice of lemon. Serve hot.

  3. Put in a chafing dish. Garnish with fancy cuts of truffles around the center; serve with hot toast.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

701Calories
21 gProtein
19 gFat
111 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 10 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Thyme1 tsp dried (1.4g)4
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
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.

By Hamilton, Ohio. First Methodist Episcopal church. [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. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Clove + thymetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

  4. Garlic + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,608 recipes

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

  5. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters (in the method)
Main ingredient; cooking firms them and they carry the dish's flavor.
Bread crumbs
Bind the mixture and brown on top, giving body and a crisp surface.
Eggs
Bind the mixture together and, as yolk, thicken the sauce.
Pure cream (in the method)
Adds richness and body to the sauce.
Butter
Adds fat and flavor for frying the onion and finishing the dish.

The step that matters

Stir the oysters gently until just cooked. Oysters toughen and shrink when overcooked, becoming dry and rubbery. Brief, gentle heat keeps them tender and moist, which is why the recipe warns against cooking too long.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, egg, butter, onion, garlic, pepper, thyme):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, egg, butter, onion, garlic, pepper, thyme. 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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