Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Oyster Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Make the oyster stock
Boil ½ pint of small oysters with their liquor in 1 pint of water until the flavor is well extracted.
Strain the mixture, pressing the juice from the oysters.
Finish and serve
Add 1 pint of small oysters to the strained liquid and stew until puffed.
Remove the oysters, skim the liquid well.
Make drawn butter by mixing 2 tablespoons of flour and 2 tablespoons of butter.
Return the oysters to the liquid, heat thoroughly, and serve.
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.
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,184 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Oyster + flourtop 25% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,582 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (grass, green).
Flour and butter 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 flavor and tender texture of the sauce, with their liquor adding savory depth.
- Flour
- Thickens the drawn butter so it gives the sauce body.
- Butter
- Forms the drawn butter with flour, adding richness and smooth mouthfeel.
The step that matters
Stew the oysters until puffed. Oysters overcook quickly and become tough and shrunken if heated too long. Stopping once they puff keeps them tender.
“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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