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Oyster and Potato Stew

A stew of fresh oysters, sliced potatoes, butter, pepper, and sea salt boiled together.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Oyster and Potato Stew

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Bring water to a boil in a pot and season with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  2. Add the oysters and stir to prevent scorching.

  3. Once boiling, add the sliced potatoes.

  4. Let it boil, then add the butter.

  5. Allow it to boil once more, then remove from heat.

  6. 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. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Oyster + eggtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,103 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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 bite of the stew.
Potatoes
Add starch that thickens the broth and gives body to the stew.
Sweet butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the broth.

The step that matters

Adding the oysters. Oysters overcook quickly and turn rubbery when boiled for long. Stirring them in early and then removing the pot from heat promptly keeps them tender. Stirring also helps prevent the bottom from scorching.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Asparagusfits about as well
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Cucumberfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, butter, egg, 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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