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To Fricassee Oysters

A creamy oyster fricassee served over buttered toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

To Fricassee Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oysters

  1. Warm the oysters in their own liquor without boiling them.

  2. Drain the oysters in a colander, reserving the liquor.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat, ensuring it does not scorch.

  2. Stir in the flour and cook for 1-2 minutes without browning.

  3. Slowly add the reserved oyster liquor while stirring continuously.

  4. Once well mixed and almost boiling, remove from heat.

  5. Stir in the beaten egg yolks and cream, then season with salt and pepper.

  6. Add the oysters and return to low heat for 1 minute, just to scald.

Serve

  1. Serve immediately over well-buttered 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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  4. Oyster + eggtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,103 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 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 flavour and tender texture of the fricassee.
Butter
Carries flavour and enriches the base of the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the liquor and cream into a smooth, stable sauce.
Cream
Adds richness and body, softening the sauce's texture.
Egg yolks
Add richness and further thicken the sauce when gently heated.

The step that matters

Stir in the egg yolks and cream off the heat. Egg yolks thicken by coagulating when heated. Adding them to a very hot mixture can curdle or scramble them, so the sauce must be removed from the heat first and the oysters only scalded afterward.

“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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