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Oyster Stew

A savory oyster stew made with oyster juice, celery, onion, paprika, salt, Worcestershire sauce, cream, oysters, and thickened with cracker dust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Oyster Stew

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a chafing dish, combine oyster juice, celery, and whole onion.

  2. Season with paprika, salt, and Worcestershire sauce.

  3. Cook until the celery is tender.

  4. Stir in cream and let it simmer without boiling.

  5. Add oysters to each portion.

  6. Remove the onion and thicken the stew with cracker dust.

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. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Sauce + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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, mellow texture.
Cracker dust
Thickens the liquid by absorbing it and swelling as it heats.
Oyster juice
Supplies the briny, savory liquid base that carries the other flavors.

The step that matters

Stir in cream and let it simmer without boiling. Boiling dairy can cause it to curdle or separate and turn grainy. Gentle heat keeps the cream smooth and keeps the oysters from toughening.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, celery, pepper, sauce, 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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