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Oyster Forcemeat for Boned Fowl, Etc.

A forcemeat made with oysters, flour, butter, egg yolks, egg whites, and seasonings, used for stuffing boned fowl.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Oyster Forcemeat for Boned Fowl, Etc.

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter and mix in the flour to create a roux.

  2. Add the oyster liquor, pepper, and coarse sea salt, stirring until smooth.

  3. Combine the egg yolks and cream, then mix into the sauce.

  4. Remove gills from oysters, cut them in half, and add to the sauce.

Finish and use

  1. Whip the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then gently fold them into the mixture.

  2. Use the forcemeat 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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

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

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, 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

Flour
Thickens the butter into a roux that gives the forcemeat body.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and forms the base of the roux.
Egg yolks
Enrich and bind the mixture, helping it set when cooked.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they add lightness and airiness to the forcemeat.
Oysters
Provide the main flavour and a tender, moist texture throughout.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whipped whites hold air that gives the forcemeat its lightness. Folding gently keeps that air in; stirring vigorously deflates the foam and leaves the mixture dense.

“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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