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Creamed Oysters with Green Pepper

Creamed oysters with green pepper served in toasted crustards, garnished with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Creamed Oysters with Green Pepper

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Drain the oysters.

  2. Scald the celery in boiling water for 10 minutes.

Make the creamed oysters

  1. Add the oysters, onion, tomato, and green pepper to the hot cream sauce.

Serve

  1. Serve in toasted crustards, garnished with parsley.

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 + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  5. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Main ingredient, providing the briny flavor and tender texture the dish is built on.
Cream sauce
Forms the creamy base, adding richness and body that carries the other ingredients.
Tomato
Adds acidity and moisture that brighten the rich sauce.
Green pepper
Adds fresh, slightly sweet flavor and a little crisp texture.
Celery
Adds savory, aromatic flavor and a slight crunch.
Onion
Adds sharp aromatic flavor to the sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the oysters to the hot cream sauce. Oysters cook very quickly in heat. Too much time in the hot sauce makes them shrink and turn tough and rubbery, so they should be added only until heated through.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, tomato, cream, sauce, pepper, celery, parsley):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, tomato, cream, sauce, pepper, celery, parsley. 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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