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Stewed Oysters

A sauce of butter, flour, oyster liquor, stock, and white wine served with oysters.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and white wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,083 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Stewed Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Blanch and remove gills from the oysters.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add enough flour to thicken the sauce to your liking.

  3. Stir in the oyster liquor and stock, then add the white wine.

  4. Bring to a boil for a few minutes.

Finish

  1. Add the oysters and heat until hot, but do not boil.

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 + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  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 + saucetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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 ingredient and delicate texture when gently heated.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavor into the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the liquid into a smooth, body-rich sauce as it cooks.
Oyster liquor
Adds concentrated briny oyster flavor and moisture to the sauce.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the sauce.

The step that matters

Add the oysters and heat until hot, but do not boil. Oysters are delicate; boiling toughens their flesh and can make them shrink and become rubbery, so they should only be warmed through at the end.

“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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