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Oysters, Stewed

A stew of oysters cooked in their liquor, butter, and milk or cream, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Oysters, Stewed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oysters

  1. Wash the oysters carefully in their liquor, then rinse them in a little water.

  2. Remove the oysters and add the rinsing water to the liquor, then strain the mixture through a thin cloth and pour it back over the oysters.

Stew and finish

  1. Place the oysters in an iron pot over heat and let them stew for 15 to 20 minutes; cook for 20 minutes if you prefer them well done.

  2. Add the butter and milk or cream, and season with salt and black pepper.

  3. Some prefer to add the butter 5 minutes before serving.

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 + milktop 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
Form the main body of the dish, becoming tender as they stew in their own liquor.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the stewing liquor.
Milk or cream
Adds moisture and body, mellowing the briny liquor into a smooth broth.

The step that matters

Stewing the oysters. Oysters turn tough and shrink when overcooked, so timing matters. Gentle stewing over heat keeps them tender while the liquor warms through.

“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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