Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Oyster Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Put the oysters into a saucepan, pour in the strained liquor, and heat slowly without boiling.
Remove the oysters after a few minutes.
Mix the butter and flour together, then stir the butter and flour mixture into the liquor until it boils and is smooth.
Gradually pour in the cream while stirring until it shows signs of boiling.
Add the oysters and cayenne pepper to the sauce.
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.
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,184 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Oyster + creamtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,886 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- Provide the main flavour and texture of the sauce.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, giving the sauce a smooth mouthfeel.
- Flour
- Thickens the liquor with the butter, giving the sauce body.
- Cream
- Adds richness and softens the sauce's flavour.
The step that matters
Stirring in the cream. Cream added to a hot, thickened liquid can curdle or separate if it boils hard. Pouring it in gradually while stirring and stopping at the first signs of boiling keeps the sauce smooth.
“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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