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Oysters, Stewed

Stewed oysters simmered in sherry, lemon, mace, cayenne vinegar, salt, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Oysters, Stewed

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Drain the oysters and reserve the liquor.

  2. In a stewpan, combine the liquor with the seasoning and bring to a boil.

  3. Skim the surface, then add the sherry and bring to a boil again.

Cook and serve

  1. Remove from heat and add the oysters, covering the pan.

  2. Let them sit for 5 to 10 minutes, keeping just below boiling point.

  3. Serve hot.

  4. If desired, add a little thickening to the liquor and a few drops of anchovy essence.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  2. Sherry + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together660 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  3. Mace + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,268 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Vinegar + parsleytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,477 recipes

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

  5. Sherry + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Provide the main flesh, which firms and turns opaque when gently heated in the hot liquor.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aromatic depth to the hot liquor, lending a fuller, slightly sweet-dry flavour.
Lemon
Adds bright acidity that cuts the richness of the oysters and sherry.

The step that matters

Keep the oysters just below boiling point. Oysters toughen and shrink when boiled hard, so once they are added to the pan the liquor should stay hot but never bubble vigorously.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, sherry, lemon, vinegar, parsley):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, sherry, lemon, vinegar, parsley. 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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