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Curry of Oysters

A quick buttery oyster curry with curry powder, onion juice, and stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and oyster are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,184 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓

Curry of Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

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

  2. Add the curry powder and onion juice, stirring to combine.

Cook and serve

  1. Once hot, add the oysters and stock.

  2. Bring to a boil and serve immediately.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Onion + oystertop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,920 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
The main ingredient, which cooks quickly and turns firm and tough if overheated.
Butter
Fat that carries the curry flavor and adds richness to the dish.
Curry powder
Provides the main spiced aroma, which releases more fully when warmed in fat.
Onion juice
Adds savory onion flavor that rounds out the curry seasoning.
Stock
Supplies the liquid that becomes the sauce and keeps the oysters moist.

The step that matters

Bring to a boil and serve immediately. Oysters firm up and toughen quickly under prolonged heat. Once the sauce boils, they need only a moment to cook through, so serving right away keeps them tender.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Cucumberfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, oyster. 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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