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Oystee Stew

A stew of oysters simmered in milk, seasoned with butter and coarse sea 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 ↓

Oystee Stew

Ingredients

Directions

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

  2. Skim the surface carefully.

  3. Add 1 quart of milk and bring it to a boil again.

  4. Look over the oysters and remove any bits of shell.

  5. Add the oysters to the boiling mixture.

  6. Once the oysters curl up, remove from heat.

  7. Season with coarse sea 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 flavour and tender texture; they curl and firm when heated.
Milk
Forms the creamy base of the stew and adds sweetness and body.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the finished stew.

The step that matters

Once the oysters curl up, remove from heat.. Oysters toughen and turn rubbery when overcooked. Pulling the pan off the heat as soon as they curl keeps them tender and juicy.

“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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