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Oyster Stew

A stew of oysters simmered in milk with butter, salt, and pepper, served with oyster crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Oyster Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Drain the liquor from the oysters and heat it in a pot.

  2. In another pot, heat the milk to boiling point without letting it burn.

  3. In a bowl, combine salt, pepper, and butter.

Make the stew

  1. Skim the boiling liquor, then add the oysters.

  2. When the oysters begin to ruffle, remove the pot from heat.

  3. Pour the oyster stew into the bowl while stirring constantly, adding the scalded milk at the same time.

Serve

  1. Serve immediately with oyster crackers.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  3. Oyster + milktop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,933 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Milk + peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26,984 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Provide the main flavor and tender body of the stew.
Milk
Forms the creamy base and adds sweetness and richness.
Butter
Adds fat, richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the stew.

The step that matters

Removing the pot when the oysters begin to ruffle. Oysters toughen and shrink when overheated, so they should be taken off the heat as soon as their edges curl. Keeping the stew below a hard boil also helps the milk stay smooth instead of scorching or curdling.

“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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