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Cyster Stew

A stew of oysters simmered in cream or milk with butter, salt, and cayenne pepper, served over buttered toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Cyster Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stew

  1. Strain the juice from the oysters into a stew pan and bring it to a boil.

  2. Remove any scum that forms on the surface.

  3. Rinse the oysters in cold water and add them to the boiling liquid.

  4. Stir in the cream or milk, butter, salt, and cayenne pepper.

Serve

  1. Prepare buttered, diced toast on a serving dish.

  2. Pour the oyster mixture over the toast and garnish with parsley.

  3. Serve hot.

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

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

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

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

  4. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  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
Provide the main flavor and tender texture of the stew.
Cream or milk
Adds richness and moisture, mellowing the broth into a smooth stew.
Butter
Adds fat for rich flavor and a silky mouthfeel.
Buttered toast
Gives the stew a crisp-soft base that soaks up the liquid.

The step that matters

Bring the strained oyster liquor to a boil before adding the oysters. Oysters cook quickly and turn tough and rubbery if overheated. Bringing the liquor to a boil first and adding the oysters just until their edges curl keeps them plump and tender.

Swap the parsley

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, cream, butter, 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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