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Hashed Oysters

A savory dish of oysters, cod, butter, and seasonings simmered into a sauce and finished with egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Hashed Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oysters

  1. Open the oysters.

  2. Reserve the oyster liquor in a saucepan.

  3. Place the oysters in a separate saucepan.

  4. Heat the oysters until nearly boiling.

  5. Remove the oysters and place them in cold water.

  6. Strain the oysters.

  7. Chop the hard parts of the oysters finely.

Make the sauce

  1. Pound the cod fish.

  2. Combine the cod fish with the oyster liquor and butter in a pan.

  3. Add the chopped oysters, parsley, spring onions, and mushrooms to the pan.

  4. Stir the mixture over heat.

  5. Mix in the flour and a little vinegar.

  6. Let the sauce simmer until it reduces.

  7. Stir in the egg yolks diluted with a little milk just before serving.

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. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  2. Oyster + fishtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together496 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Parsley + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,132 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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 texture of the dish as chopped pieces in the sauce.
Cod fish
Pounded into the sauce to give body and a firm, flaky texture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour and smoothing the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the liquid into a sauce as it cooks and reduces.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the sauce, giving it a smooth, creamy body.

The step that matters

Stir in the egg yolks just before serving. Egg yolks thicken when heated but can scramble and curdle if the sauce is too hot or boils after they are added. Diluting them with milk and stirring gently off the boil keeps the sauce smooth.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, fish, butter, parsley, mushroom, flour, vinegar):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Cucumberfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, fish, butter, parsley, mushroom, flour, vinegar. 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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