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Creamed Oysters

A creamy oyster dish with butter, cream, and seasoning.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Creamed Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a chafing dish.

  2. Add flour and blend well until smooth.

  3. Gradually stir in the cream, cooking until the sauce is smooth.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the rinsed and drained oysters.

  2. Bring to a boil, season with celery salt and pepper, and 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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Celery + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,905 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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
Provide the main seafood flavor and tender texture in the creamy sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping build a smooth base for the sauce.
Cream
Supplies moisture and body, thickening into a rich, smooth sauce.
Flour
Thickens the butter and cream into a smooth sauce.

The step that matters

Stirring in the cream gradually. Adding cream slowly to the flour and butter mixture lets the starch absorb liquid evenly, which prevents lumps and gives a smooth sauce.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

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