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Devilled Oysters, Stewed

A stewed oyster dish flavored with cream, butter, parsley, salt, pepper, and cayenne.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 ↓

Devilled Oysters, Stewed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Open and drain the oysters, then trim and chop them coarsely.

Cook

  1. In a saucepan, combine the chopped oysters, cream, butter, and parsley.

  2. Season with salt, pepper, and cayenne.

  3. Cook over medium heat for a few minutes until heated through.

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. Parsley + peppertop 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 body and briny flavor of the filling.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture so the oysters stay tender rather than dry.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavor through the warm filling.

The step that matters

Cook over medium heat until heated through. Oysters toughen and turn rubbery when overcooked, so heating only until just warmed through keeps them tender and moist.

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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