Name: Creamed Oysters and Mushrooms
Ingredients: 1 quart oysters, drained; 3 tablespoons butter; 4 large tablespoons flour; 1 cup milk or cream; 1 piece baking soda, size of a pea; 1 can mushrooms (about 14 oz), drained; 2 eggs, beaten; 1½ teaspoons coarse sea salt; Crackers or toast for serving

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Creamed Oysters and Mushrooms

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

In a pan, melt the butter over medium heat.
Stir in the flour and mash lumps until smooth and bubbling.

Add the oysters and mushrooms

Add the drained oysters and heat through.
Dissolve the baking soda in the milk or cream and add it along with the oyster juice.
Cook for a few minutes until it bubbles.
Add the drained mushrooms and cook until bubbling.

Finish and serve

Slowly stir in the beaten eggs, then remove from heat immediately.
Mix in the salt and serve over crackers or toast.

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,525 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Milk + mushroomtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,231 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,184 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, 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: Main ingredient, giving the dish its briny flavor and tender bite.
Butter: Fat that carries flavor and adds richness to the sauce.
Flour: Thickens the sauce as its starch swells in the hot butter and liquid.
Milk or cream: Forms the liquid base that makes the sauce smooth and creamy.
Mushrooms: Adds savory, earthy flavor and soft texture to the sauce.
Eggs: Enrich and thicken the sauce as their proteins gently set with heat.

The step that matters

Stirring in the eggs. Egg proteins set and curdle when they get too hot. Adding the beaten eggs slowly and removing the pan from heat right away keeps the sauce smooth and creamy instead of grainy.

“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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Creamed Oysters and Mushrooms