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Cream Oysters

Cream Oysters are oysters cooked in butter, milk, onion, salt, paprika, parsley, and lemon juice, served on toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Kaufman, Nettie M · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Cream Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Melt 1 tablespoon of butter.

  2. Add 1 cup of milk, 1 small grated onion, salt and paprika to taste, some chopped parsley, and juice of half a lemon.

Finish and serve

  1. Drain 1 pint of oysters.

  2. Boil up and serve on toast.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

296Calories
9 gProtein
20 gFat
22 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Onion1 medium (110g)44
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 Kaufman, Nettie M. 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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Milk + oniontop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Melted fat that carries flavour and adds richness to the sauce.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, giving it a smooth, creamy body.
Onion
Adds aroma and savoury flavour that spreads through the milk as it heats.

The step that matters

Boil up. Milk scorches and boils over quickly once it gets hot, and overheating can make it separate. Keep the heat moderate and stir so the sauce stays smooth and does not catch on the base of the pan.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, milk, onion. 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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