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Oyster Force-meat

A mixture of oysters, bread, butter, lemon rind, mace, cayenne, salt, parsley, egg yolk, and oyster liquor.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Oyster Force-meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oysters

  1. Open the oysters carefully and remove the beards.

  2. Strain the oyster liquor and rinse the oysters in it.

  3. Mince the oysters, but do not chop them too small.

Make the forcemeat

  1. Mix the minced oysters with the grated bread.

  2. Add the butter, lemon rind, mace, cayenne, salt, and parsley to the mixture.

  3. Combine well and work in the egg yolk and a little oyster liquor.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  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 flavour and bulk, giving the forcemeat its savoury taste and texture.
Stale bread
Absorbs moisture and gives the forcemeat body so it holds together rather than turning wet.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel.
Egg yolk
Binds the mixture together, helping it hold its shape when cooked.

The step that matters

Mincing the oysters. Chopping the oysters too fine turns them mushy and releases juice, so the forcemeat becomes wet and loses texture. Mince them coarsely so small pieces of oyster remain distinct in the mixture.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, bread, butter, lemon, pepper, parsley, 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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