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Oysters, Stewed

Stewed oysters with lemon, mace, peppercorns, cayenne, nutmeg, butter, flour, cream, served over toasted bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Oysters, Stewed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oysters

  1. Remove gills from oysters.

  2. Place them in a basin.

  3. Squeeze lemon juice over them.

Make the sauce

  1. Combine the gills, oyster liquor, mace, peppercorns, lemon rind, cayenne, and nutmeg in a saucepan.

  2. Simmer gently for 15 minutes.

  3. Strain the liquid.

  4. Thicken it by mixing butter and flour, then add to the strained liquid.

  5. Stir in cream and heat gently until smooth and thick.

  6. Add oysters and warm through without boiling.

Serve

  1. Place a slice of toasted bread on a hot dish.

  2. Pour oysters and gravy over it.

  3. Serve.

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. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  5. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Form the main body of the dish and provide its briny flavour.
Butter
Enriches the sauce and, with the flour, gives it body and a smooth mouthfeel.
Flour
Thickens the strained liquid into a smooth gravy when cooked with butter.
Cream
Adds richness and fat, softening the sauce and giving it a smooth texture.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the oysters and balances the rich cream sauce.

The step that matters

Add oysters and warm through without boiling. Oysters are delicate; boiling toughens their flesh and makes them shrink and grainy, so they should only be gently heated in the hot sauce.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, lemon, nutmeg, butter, flour, cream, bread):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, lemon, nutmeg, butter, flour, cream, bread. 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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