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Bellevoir Stew

A creamy oyster stew with celery and cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Bellevoir Stew

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Melt the butter in a chafing dish and add the celery. Cook until the celery is tender.

  2. Stir in the cream and bring to a boil.

  3. Add the oysters, salt, and pepper, along with enough cracker crumbs to reach your desired thickness.

  4. Cook until the oysters begin to curl and serve immediately.

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  3. Butter + oystertop 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. Celery + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,863 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Provide the main flavor and tender texture of the stew.
Cream
Adds richness and body, giving the stew a smooth, silky mouthfeel.
Cracker crumbs
Thicken the liquid as they absorb moisture and swell when heated.
Celery
Adds a mild, fresh vegetable flavor and a little texture.
Butter
Adds fat and rich flavor while softening the celery.

The step that matters

Cook the oysters until they just begin to curl. Oysters toughen and turn rubbery when overcooked, so they should be removed from heat as soon as the edges curl and the stew is served right away.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Celerythe original
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, oyster, cream, pepper. 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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