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Creamed Oysters

Oysters cooked in a butter, flour, and cream sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Creamed Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the oysters

  1. Drain the oysters and dry them between towels.

  2. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a frying pan over medium heat.

  3. Add the oysters and stir carefully until the edges curl.

Make the cream sauce

  1. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter and 2 tablespoons of flour until smooth.

  2. Add 1 pint of cream or milk and stir until it thickens.

  3. Pour the sauce into a double boiler, add the oysters, and season to taste.

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

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

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

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

  5. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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
Are the main ingredient, providing the dish's flavour and delicate texture when cooked briefly.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and helps cook the oysters without sticking.
Flour
Thickens the butter and cream into a smooth sauce when cooked together as a roux.
Cream or milk
Forms the body of the sauce and adds moisture and richness.

The step that matters

Thickening the cream sauce. Cooking the butter and flour into a smooth roux before adding the cream lets starch gelatinise evenly, so the sauce thickens without lumps. Stirring as the liquid is added keeps it 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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