Skip to main content
Main

Fricasseed Oysters

Fricassée oysters are oysters cooked with butter, flour, egg, cream, and served over toasted bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Fricasseed Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Drain the oysters and dry them as much as possible.

  2. In a skillet, melt 2 tablespoons of butter until browned.

  3. Add the oysters to the skillet.

  4. Cook the oysters until they start to cook.

Make the sauce

  1. Mix 1 teaspoon of flour with more butter.

  2. Add the flour mixture to the oysters.

  3. Cook for a moment.

  4. Beat 1 egg and mix with 1 teaspoon of cream.

  5. Add the egg-cream mixture to the oysters.

  6. Let it cook briefly.

Serve

  1. Pour the mixture over toasted bread.

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

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

  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. Oyster + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,545 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, 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
Form the main body of the dish and release their liquor as they cook.
Butter
Adds richness and browning in the skillet, and carries the flour for the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the butter and oyster juices into a light, smooth sauce.
Egg
Enriches the sauce and thickens it gently when heated.
Cream
Adds richness and a softer texture to the egg mixture.

The step that matters

Adding the egg-cream mixture to the oysters. Egg proteins set with heat and can curdle or turn grainy if the pan is too hot or the mixture cooks too long. Keep the heat moderate and cook only briefly so the sauce stays smooth.

“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.

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesBread OmeletteBread Omelette60 recipesOatmeal BreadOatmeal Bread51 recipes