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Stewed Oysters

Stewed oysters are cooked with celery, onion, butter, parsley, cream, milk, and oyster stock, seasoned with salt and Tabasco sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Stewed Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil the celery in the oyster stock or liquor with salt, Tabasco sauce, and onion for about 15 minutes.

  2. Add the oysters, butter, and parsley.

  3. Stir in the boiled milk and cream just 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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  5. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Provide the main body and briny flavor of the stew.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the broth.
Cream
Adds richness and body, softening the broth's texture.
Milk
Dilutes and mellows the broth while adding creaminess.
Celery
Softens in the stock, adding savory aroma and a gentle vegetal flavor.

The step that matters

Stir in the boiled milk and cream just before serving. Dairy that boils for long can curdle or turn grainy, and oysters overcook and toughen when simmered too long. Adding the milk and cream at the end keeps the stew smooth and the oysters tender.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, sauce, celery, onion, butter, cream, milk):

  1. Capersfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Garlicfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, sauce, celery, onion, butter, cream, milk. 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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