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Creamed Oysters

A baked dish of parboiled oysters in a cream sauce topped with cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and celery 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 ↓

Creamed Oysters

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the cream sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add the flour and stir until combined.

  3. Gradually add the boiling cream, stirring continuously.

  4. Season with salt, pepper, cayenne, and celery salt.

Assemble and bake

  1. Add the parboiled oysters and mix well.

  2. Pour the mixture into a baking dish.

  3. Top with cracker crumbs and bake at 400°F (200°C) until golden brown.

  4. Alternatively, serve the creamed oysters on 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. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Flour + celerytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,905 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

Cream
Forms the liquid base of the sauce and gives it a rich, smooth body.
Butter
Adds fat and flavour, and carries the flour into the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the cream into a sauce as it is cooked with the butter and liquid.
Oysters
Provide the main flavour and texture of the dish.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, browned topping during baking.

The step that matters

Adding the boiling cream gradually. Pouring the cream in slowly while stirring keeps the flour evenly dispersed, so the sauce thickens smoothly without lumps.

Swap the celery

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

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

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

More creamed oysters recipes

on Toast 8 See all 117 →

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