Skip to main content
Main

Fricasseed Oysters

A creamy oyster fricassee made with pickled ham, broth, and a corn starch thickening.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Parsley and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,979 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Fricasseed Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Soak the pickled ham in boiling water for 30 minutes.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the ham, broth, oyster liquor, onion, parsley, marjoram, and pepper.

  3. Simmer the mixture for 20 minutes.

  4. Boil rapidly for 2–3 minutes.

  5. Skim the surface.

Make the sauce

  1. Mix corn starch with milk.

  2. Add the corn starch mixture to the pan, stirring constantly until it boils.

  3. Add the oysters and butter, bringing the sauce just to a boil.

  4. Transfer the oysters to a deep dish.

  5. Beat the egg. Gradually mix some hot broth into the beaten egg.

  6. Stir the egg mixture into the pan.

  7. Season with salt.

  8. Pour the mixture over the oysters.

  9. Squeeze lemon juice over the dish 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. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Marjoram + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  5. Marjoram + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together89 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Beaten egg, stirred into the hot broth, thickens the sauce and makes it rich.
Corn starch
Thickens the broth into a smooth, glossy sauce as it boils.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the sauce a silky mouthfeel.
Pickled raw ham
Contributes salty, savoury flavour to the broth.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich sauce and balances the oysters.

The step that matters

Adding the egg mixture. Beaten egg thins with hot broth first so it does not scramble. Stirred into a sauce that is too hot or boiling, it can curdle and turn grainy. Keep the heat low once it goes in.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, veal, oyster, parsley, marjoram, pepper, corn):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, veal, oyster, parsley, marjoram, pepper, corn. 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.

You might also like

Lemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesCorn FrittersCorn Fritters203 recipesCream of Corn SoupCream of Corn Soup50 recipesVeal PattiesVeal Patties50 recipes