Skip to main content
Main

Oyster Stew

A savory oyster stew with white wine, butter, flour, mushrooms, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Oyster Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Poach the oysters

  1. Put the oysters with their liquor and cold water in a saucepan over medium heat.

  2. Remove from heat at the first boil.

  3. Skim the surface.

  4. Use a skimmer to transfer the oysters to a warm soup dish.

  5. Add the white wine to the saucepan.

  6. Bring to a boil.

  7. Remove from heat.

Make the stew

  1. In a bowl, mix the butter and flour.

  2. Add the juice and wine mixture to the bowl, stirring well.

  3. Return the mixture to the saucepan.

  4. Add mushrooms, parsley, and pepper.

  5. Boil for 2 minutes.

  6. Strain the mixture over the oysters.

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

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

  2. White wine + mushroomtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  3. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. White wine + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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 texture of the stew.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavor and giving a silky body.
Flour
Thickens the liquor and butter mixture into a smooth, lightly body-rich broth.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the rich broth.
Mushrooms
Add earthy savory depth and a meaty texture to the broth.

The step that matters

Remove from heat at the first boil. Oysters toughen and shrink quickly when overcooked, so they should be heated only until the liquid first boils and then taken off the heat.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Thymefits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, white wine, butter, flour, mushroom, 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.

More oyster stew recipes

Dry 4Virginia 4Chicken 3 See all 211 →

You might also like

Mushroom SoupMushroom Soup60 recipesMock Oyster SoupMock Oyster Soup21 recipesCorn FrittersCorn Fritters6 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipes