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Maryland Stew

A stew of oysters, eggs, butter, and spices simmered in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Maryland Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stew base

  1. In a saucepan, simmer 1 pint of water.

  2. In a bowl, rub together the yolks of 3 hard-boiled eggs and 1 tablespoon of flour.

  3. Stir the egg mixture into the simmering water.

Finish and serve

  1. Add ¼ lb of butter, ½ teaspoon of whole allspice, lemon juice, salt, and pepper.

  2. Let it simmer for 10 minutes.

  3. Add the oysters 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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + lemontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

Flour and butter 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 flavour and texture of the stew.
Hard-boiled egg yolks
Thicken the broth slightly and add richness.
Flour
Helps thicken the liquid and bind with the yolks.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth mouthfeel.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich broth.

The step that matters

Add the oysters and serve immediately. Oysters cook very quickly and turn firm and rubbery if simmered too long. Adding them last, just before serving, keeps them tender and plump.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, egg, flour, butter, lemon, pepper. 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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