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Fricasseed Oysters

A savory oyster dish simmered with ham, broth, onions, herbs, and thickened with corn starch, finished with butter and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,979 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Fricasseed Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ham and broth

  1. Soak the slice of pickled ham in boiling water for 30 minutes.

  2. Cut the ham into small pieces.

  3. Place the ham in a saucepan with the broth, oyster liquor, minced onion, parsley, marjoram, and pepper.

  4. Simmer for 20 minutes.

  5. Boil rapidly for 2-3 minutes.

  6. Skim well.

Thicken and cook the oysters

  1. Mix the corn-starch smoothly in the milk.

  2. Stir the mixture into the pan.

  3. Cook until it boils.

  4. Add the oysters and butter.

  5. Let the mixture come to a boil.

  6. Transfer the oysters to a deep dish.

Finish and serve

  1. Beat the egg.

  2. Gradually add some hot broth.

  3. Stir the egg mixture into the pan.

  4. Season with salt.

  5. Pour the mixture over the oysters.

  6. Squeeze lemon juice over the dish before serving.

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 + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Marjoram + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Marjoram + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together89 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Corn-starch
Thickens the liquid into a smooth, light sauce when heated.
Egg
Enriches and thickens the sauce to a silky, creamy texture when stirred in.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the sauce.
Oysters
Provide the main ingredient, with a delicate, briny flavor and tender texture.
Pickled raw ham
Adds salty, savory depth to the broth.

The step that matters

Adding the egg mixture. If the egg is poured into a boiling liquid it can scramble. Tempering it with some hot broth first and stirring gently keeps the sauce smooth and thickened.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, veal, oyster, parsley, marjoram, pepper, corn):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, veal, oyster, parsley, marjoram, pepper, corn. 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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