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American Oysters

A creamy oyster stew made with milk, butter, oysters, soda biscuits, pepper, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

American Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine the milk and butter in a saucepan.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Add the oysters and simmer for 5 minutes.

  4. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  5. Break the soda biscuits into pieces and add them to the mixture.

  6. Bring the mixture to a boil again.

  7. Pour into a deep dish to serve.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Biscuit + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together841 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

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

  4. Oyster + biscuittop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together183 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Biscuit + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,009 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Provide the main flavour and texture of the stew.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the stew.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the milk.
Soda biscuits
Break down in the hot liquid to thicken the stew slightly.

The step that matters

Simmering the oysters for 5 minutes. Oysters turn firm and rubbery when overcooked, so they should be added and simmered only briefly until their edges curl. Keeping the heat gentle also stops the milk from scorching or boiling over.

“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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