Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Stewed Oysters
Ingredients
Directions
Heat a vessel until hot.
Remove oysters from their liquor using a fork; do not wash them in fresh water.
Place oysters in the hot vessel, stirring to prevent burning.
Cook quickly until half done.
Add butter, cream or milk, whipped egg yolks, pepper, and salt.
Serve hot.
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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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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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 + eggtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,103 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Oyster + creamtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,886 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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, cooking through as the stew sets.
- Fresh butter
- Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the stewing liquid.
- Cream or rich milk
- Adds moisture and richness, giving the stew a smooth, creamy body.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the cream mixture gently and add richness to the finished stew.
The step that matters
Cook quickly until half done. Oysters toughen and shrink when overcooked, so they should be cooked briefly over steady heat and stirred to prevent scorching. Adding the egg yolks at the end, off the heat or on low heat, keeps them from 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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