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Salad

Oyster and Celery Salad

A chilled salad of oysters, celery, and a creamy mustard dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 456 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Oyster and Celery Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oysters

  1. Remove gills from oysters and cut oysters into quarters.

  2. Heat oysters in their own liquor without boiling.

Make the dressing

  1. Heat cream, tarragon vinegar, and butter.

  2. Add mustard and stir until hot.

  3. Add egg yolks.

  4. Stir over low heat until a liaison forms.

  5. Add oysters.

  6. Heat again.

  7. Remove from heat and let cool.

Assemble the salad

  1. Wash and trim celery.

  2. Shred the white portion of celery.

  3. Place shredded celery in a bowl.

  4. Season celery with salt and cayenne pepper.

  5. Add some dressing from the oysters.

  6. Add mayonnaise or tartar sauce.

  7. Gently mix in the oysters and other ingredients.

  8. Transfer to a salad bowl.

  9. Pile the salad high.

  10. Sprinkle with finely chopped parsley.

  11. Garnish with slices of hard-boiled egg.

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. Tarragon + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together456 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,547 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  4. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Provide the main seafood flavour and tender texture in the salad.
Egg yolks
Thicken the warm cream mixture into a liaison that gives the dressing body.
Cream
Adds richness and smoothness to the warm dressing.
Tarragon vinegar
Adds acidity and aroma that cut through the richness of the dressing.
White celery
Supplies crisp texture and fresh flavour to the salad base.
Mayonnaise or tartar sauce
Adds fat and moisture to bind the salad together.

The step that matters

Stir over low heat until a liaison forms. Egg yolks thicken when heated gently, but too much heat scrambles them into lumps. Low, steady heat and constant stirring give a smooth, thickened dressing.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, cream, tarragon, vinegar, butter, sauce, egg):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, cream, tarragon, vinegar, butter, sauce, egg. 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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