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Cueried Oysters

Oysters simmered in a curry‑flavored butter sauce with onion.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Cueried Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the curry base

  1. Mix the curry powder, flour, and butter in a stew pan.

  2. Add the chopped onion and simmer until light brown, stirring constantly.

Add the oysters and serve

  1. Pour in the oyster liquor and lemon juice, and boil for 5 minutes.

  2. Add the oysters, bring to a boil, and serve with rice.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,404 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

Oysters
Main ingredient; they cook quickly and their texture depends on brief heating.
Onion
Browning builds sweetness and savoury depth as it simmers in the butter.
Curry powder
Supplies the spiced aroma and flavour that defines the dish.
Flour
Thickens the butter and curry mixture into a smooth sauce.
Butter
Carries the curry flavour and adds richness to the sauce.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, spiced sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the oysters and bringing to a boil. Oysters are added last and only need to heat until they plump and firm. Prolonged boiling makes their proteins contract, leaving them rubbery and shrunken.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, onion, flour, butter. 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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