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Oysters Algonquin

Oysters Algonquin is a creamy oyster dish cooked with celery, butter, cream, and optional sherry, served on toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Oysters Algonquin

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. In a chafing dish, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the chopped celery and cook until soft.

  3. Stir in the cream, then season with salt and pepper.

  4. Bring the mixture to a boil, then add the oysters.

  5. Cook until the edges of the oysters curl.

Serve

  1. If desired, stir in the sherry before serving.

  2. Serve the oysters on squares of toast.

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.

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Butter + oystertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  4. Butter + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Cream + oystertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,886 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Melts to form a rich fat base that carries the celery flavor.
Celery
Softens into the base and adds a fresh, savory aroma and light crunch.
Cream
Adds moisture and body, thickening the sauce into a rich coating.
Oysters
Provide the main seafood flavor and tender texture, firming as their edges curl.

The step that matters

Cook the oysters until their edges just curl. Oysters turn firm and rubbery when overcooked, so they should be heated only until their edges curl and the flesh is just set.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, cream, pepper, oyster, sherry. 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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