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Stewed Otstebs

A stew of oysters simmered in butter, flour, and spices, served over toasted crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and white wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,083 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Stewed Otstebs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the liquor

  1. Wash the oysters.

  2. Let the liquor stand for 10 minutes to settle.

  3. Strain the liquor through a fine sieve into a saucepan.

Make the stew

  1. Add ⅓ gallon of cold water and ¼ pound of butter to the saucepan.

  2. Stir in 2 tablespoons of flour or cracker crumbs.

  3. Add Cayenne pepper and mace if desired.

  4. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  5. Add the oysters.

Serve

  1. Toast 6 crackers and butter the toasted crackers lightly.

  2. Place the buttered crackers in an oyster dish.

  3. Pour the oyster mixture over the crackers.

  4. Add ⅓ cup of white wine or ¼ cup of vinegar before serving.

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 + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  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. Pepper + white winetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,433 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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
Are the main ingredient, cooked briefly in the broth so they stay tender.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that gives the stewed broth a smooth, rounded flavour.
Flour or cracker crumbs
Thickens the cooking liquor so the stew has body rather than being thin.
White wine or vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the rich broth and balances the oysters' briny flavour.

The step that matters

Add the oysters after the mixture boils. Oysters toughen and shrink when overcooked. Adding them to the hot liquid at the end, and not boiling them for long, keeps them plump and tender.

Swap the mace

The recipe marks mace as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, butter, flour, pepper, white wine):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, butter, flour, pepper, white wine. 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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