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Sauce

Oyster Sauce, Brown

A thickened sauce made from brown sauce and oyster liquor, simmered with oysters until edges curl.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Why it works: Sauce and oyster are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and 2,233 recipes mention both. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Oyster Sauce, Brown

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Make ½ pint of brown sauce.

  2. Strain the liquor from 24 oysters and add it to the sauce.

  3. Boil together until the sauce thickens.

Add the oysters

  1. Drop in the oysters and let them simmer until the edges curl.

  2. Remove the sauce from the heat 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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Sauce + oystertop 14% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Provide the main briny flavour and tender texture when gently simmered.
Oyster liquor
Adds concentrated sea flavour and extra liquid to thin and season the sauce.
Brown sauce
Forms the thickened base that carries the flavour of the oysters.

The step that matters

Drop in the oysters and let them simmer until the edges curl.. Oysters toughen and turn rubbery when overcooked, so they need only brief gentle heat until the edges curl. Removing the sauce from the heat promptly keeps them tender.

“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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