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Oysters and Mushrooms

A creamy oyster and mushroom dish served on toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Mushroom and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Oysters and Mushrooms

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Parboil the oysters, strain, and save the liquor.

  2. Cut the oysters finely and mix with the chopped mushrooms.

  3. Combine the oyster liquor and mushroom juice with enough cream to make 1 pint.

Make the sauce

  1. Thicken the mixture with butter and flour over low heat.

  2. Season with salt, cayenne, and lemon juice.

  3. Add the oysters and mushrooms, then serve on toast.

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. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

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

  2. Cream + buttertop 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. Mushroom + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,633 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
Provide the main seafood flavour and tender texture in the finished dish.
Cream
Forms the body of the sauce and gives it a rich, smooth texture.
Butter
Adds richness and, with flour, forms the roux that thickens the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the cream mixture when cooked with butter.
Chopped mushrooms
Add earthy flavour and a soft, meaty texture to the sauce.

The step that matters

Thickening with butter and flour over low heat. Cooking flour in butter over low heat builds a roux that thickens smoothly. Too much heat can scorch the butter or leave the flour tasting raw, and the sauce can turn lumpy if the liquid is added carelessly.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Coconutfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Strawberryfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

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

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