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Stewed Oysters

A stew of oysters cooked with mace, fat, flour, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Oyster and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,886 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Stewed Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oysters

  1. Remove the gills from the oysters and place them in a stewpan with the mace.

  2. Stew the oysters until the edges begin to shiver.

Make the sauce

  1. In a separate pan, melt the Cottolene and stir in the flour to make a sauce.

  2. Combine the oyster liquor, Cottolene, and flour mixture.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the oysters and cream.

  2. Simmer for a few minutes, being careful not to let it boil after adding the cream.

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. Oyster + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,886 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  2. Cream + macetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,009 recipes
  3. Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  4. Oyster + flourtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,582 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (grass, green).

  5. Oyster + macetop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,910 recipes

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Provide the main ingredient, with their liquor adding savory flavor to the sauce.
Cottolene
Provides fat that carries flavor and enriches the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the melted fat and liquor into a smooth sauce.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy body to the stew.

The step that matters

Simmer gently after adding the cream. Cream can curdle or separate when it boils, so it should only be heated gently. Keeping the stew below a boil keeps the sauce smooth and the oysters tender rather than tough.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, flour, cream):

  1. Jalapenofits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, flour, cream. 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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