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Fricassee of Oysters

A French oyster fricassee made with oysters, wine, broth, butter, flour, eggs, mace, pepper, salt, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Margaret Brown · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and white wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,083 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Fricassee of Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Poach the oysters

  1. Set 75 oysters on the fire with their liquor and an equal quantity of chicken broth, 1 glass white wine, and 2 blades mace.

  2. When they boil, remove the oysters from the fire and from the boiling braise, then return the braise to the fire.

Make the sauce

  1. In a clean stewpan, put a piece of butter the size of an egg and 1-1/2 teaspoonfuls of flour.

  2. Stir for 5 minutes.

  3. Add the yolks of 5 eggs, 1 saltspoonful of white pepper, salt, and 1 tablespoonful chopped parsley.

  4. Do not let it boil.

  5. Heat the oysters in the sauce until hot.

Serve

  1. Use as directed.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

748Calories
29 gProtein
21 gFat
103 gCarbs

Counts 8 of 9 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Oyster6 medium (84g)81
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
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 Margaret Brown. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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 + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. White pepper + macetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + oystertop 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
Are the main ingredient, cooked gently in the braise and then heated in the sauce.
Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce and give it a rich, smooth body as they set with gentle heat.
Butter
Forms the fat base with flour, carrying flavour and helping make a smooth roux.
Flour
Thickens the butter base into a roux that gives the sauce body.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the braise that flavours the oysters.

The step that matters

Do not let it boil. Once egg yolks are added, high heat can scramble them and make the sauce grainy. Keeping it hot but below boiling lets the yolks thicken it smoothly.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, parsley, butter, egg, oyster, white wine, mace):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, parsley, butter, egg, oyster, white wine, mace. 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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