Name: Oysters a LA Poulette
Ingredients: 25 oysters (or 1 quart); 2 ounces butter; 1 ounce sifted flour; 1 cup oyster liquor; 2 egg yolks; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; a pinch of red pepper; 1 teaspoon lemon juice; a grating of nutmeg

Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Oysters a LA Poulette

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oysters

Put the oysters in their own liquor over medium heat until boiling.
Strain the oysters through a colander and set them aside.

Make the sauce

In a saucepan, melt the butter until bubbling.
Sprinkle in the flour and cook for 1 minute without browning. Whisk the mixture well.
Add the oyster liquor.
Remove from heat. Mix in the egg yolks, salt, red pepper, lemon juice, and nutmeg until well combined.
Return the mixture to low heat to set the eggs without boiling. Add the oysters.

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.

Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,318 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together13,015 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,623 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, 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 flavor and tender body of the dish.
Butter: Adds richness and fat that carries flavor through the sauce.
Flour: Thickens the butter and liquor into a smooth base for the sauce.
Egg yolks: Enrich and thicken the sauce as they gently set over low heat.
Oyster liquor: Supplies the briny, savory liquid that forms the sauce's base.

The step that matters

Setting the egg yolks. Egg yolks thicken when gently heated but curdle and turn grainy if they boil. Keep the heat low and the mixture below a simmer 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.

Lemon Sauce236 recipes

Mock Oyster Soup21 recipes

Corn Fritters6 recipes

Tomato Soup526 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account for sign-in; Pro adds the full results and chemistry.

Oysters a LA Poulette