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Oysters a LA Poulette

A dish of oysters cooked with sherry or white wine, then finished with egg yolks and rich cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Oyster and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,103 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Oysters a LA Poulette

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Prepare the oysters as directed for Curried Oysters, omitting the curry powder.

  2. Add ½ cup of sherry or white wine.

  3. When the oysters are cooked, remove from heat.

  4. Stir in the yolks of 2 eggs beaten with 2 tablespoons of rich cream.

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

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

  2. Oyster + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,886 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Sherry + creamtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  4. Oyster + sherrytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together340 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks thicken the sauce into a smooth, creamy coating as they gently set with the heat.
Rich cream
Adds fat and richness, softening the egg yolks so the sauce stays smooth.
Sherry or white wine
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the oysters and cut the richness of the sauce.

The step that matters

Stir in the yolks after removing from heat. Egg yolks begin to scramble at around 160°F, so the pan must be off the heat when they go in. Stirring steadily while adding the cream and yolk mixture keeps the sauce smooth rather than grainy.

“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.