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Oyster Stew

A stew of oysters simmered in milk, butter, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Oyster Stew

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Put the oyster liquor in a stewpan and bring it to a boil.

  2. Skim the surface carefully.

  3. Add the milk and bring it back to a boil.

  4. Look over the oysters and remove any shell pieces.

  5. Add the oysters to the stewpan.

  6. When they curl up, remove from heat.

  7. Season with salt and butter to taste.

  8. Serve in hot soup bowls.

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. Milk + buttertop 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).

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 texture once they curl up in the hot milk.
Milk
Forms the creamy body of the stew and carries the oyster flavor.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the finished stew.

The step that matters

Removing the oysters when they curl. Oysters toughen and turn rubbery when overcooked, so they should be taken off the heat as soon as their edges curl.

“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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