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Sherried Oysters

A dish of oysters simmered in sherry, cream, and egg yolks, served on toast and garnished with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓

Sherried Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Poach the oysters

  1. Boil oysters in water with salt for 5 minutes.

  2. Drain and place oysters in a saucepan.

  3. Pour sherry over oysters, season with salt and cayenne, and cook for 3 minutes.

  4. Add cream and cook for an additional 6 minutes.

Thicken and serve

  1. In a cup, mix egg yolks, brandy, and cream, then pour over oysters.

  2. Let simmer for 3 minutes, stirring gently.

  3. Serve on toast and garnish 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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Sherry + brandytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Oyster + eggtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,103 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Cream + brandytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,635 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  5. Oyster + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,886 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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 dish's core texture and briny flavour.
Sherry
Adds sweetness, acidity and aroma that flavour the oysters.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, and helps the sauce turn smooth.
Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce through gentle heat and add richness.
Brandy
Adds aroma and a warm, spirited flavour to the sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolk mixture. Egg yolks thicken when heated gently, but if the mixture gets too hot or is stirred too hard it can scramble. Keeping the simmer low and stirring gently lets the sauce become smooth and creamy.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, sherry, pepper, cream, egg, brandy):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Celeryfits about as well
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, sherry, pepper, cream, egg, brandy. 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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