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Oysters a LA Russe

A fried oyster and chicken mixture served in strips with bacon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Oysters a LA Russe

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Boil the oysters in their own liquor, then remove and mince them.

  2. Cut the chicken into small pieces.

Make the custard

  1. In a pan, mix the flour and butter over heat until it bubbles.

  2. Stir in the milk and oyster liquor.

  3. Add the minced chicken and seasonings.

  4. Stir until it boils again.

  5. Add the egg yolks and cook for one more minute.

  6. Fold in the oysters and chicken.

  7. Spread the mixture on a buttered platter.

  8. Let the mixture cool.

Bake and serve

  1. Cut into finger-sized strips.

  2. Roll each strip in thin slices of parboiled bacon.

  3. Dip in batter.

  4. Fry until golden brown.

  5. Serve very hot.

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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Milk + chickentop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,389 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

Flour and butter 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 seafood flavour and texture of the filling.
Flour
Thickens the milk and butter into a stable sauce that holds the filling together.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, giving it a smooth, creamy body.
Egg yolks
Enrich and set the sauce, binding the mixture so it firms when cooled.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps form the roux with the flour.
Minced chicken
Adds body and savoury substance to the filling.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool. The custard must cool and firm fully before it is cut into strips; if it is still warm and soft, the strips will not hold their shape and will break apart when rolled and fried.

“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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