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Brown Fricassee of Oysters

A creamy oyster dish simmered with butter, flour, milk, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Brown Fricassee of Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Drain the oysters and remove gills.

  2. Heat oysters in a saucepan until the edges curl.

Make the sauce

  1. In a bowl, rub together the butter and flour.

  2. Gradually add the milk to the butter and flour mixture.

  3. Stir in the onion, bay leaf, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper.

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

Serve

  1. Once very hot, remove the bay leaf and serve in a shallow dish.

  2. Garnish with triangular pieces of toast and dust with chopped 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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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
Provide the main ingredient, with a tender texture and briny flavor.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and combines with flour to thicken the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth, creamy sauce with the butter.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, giving it a creamy body.
Worcestershire sauce
Adds savory, tangy depth to the creamy sauce.

The step that matters

Bring to a boil, then add the oysters. Oysters cook quickly and turn tough and rubbery if overcooked. Adding them once the sauce is very hot, and heating only until the edges curl, keeps them tender.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, sauce, parsley, butter, milk, pepper, flour):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, sauce, parsley, butter, milk, pepper, flour. 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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