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Creamed Oysters

Oysters simmered in a creamy sauce of milk, crackers, and cornstarch.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Creamed Oysters

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oysters

  1. Strain the oyster liquor and bring it to a boil, skimming as needed.

  2. Steam the drained oysters over boiling water for 5 to 8 minutes until edges shrivel.

Make the cream sauce

  1. In a kettle, combine cream or milk, salt, crackers, and cornstarch mixed with a little milk.

  2. Stir until boiling, then add butter if using milk, and boil again, adding the oyster liquor.

Serve

  1. Place oysters in a hot dish and pour the cream mixture over them.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Provide the main ingredient, whose edges firm and curl when gently steamed.
Cream or milk
Forms the rich, smooth base of the sauce and adds moisture.
Rolled crackers
Add body and thicken the sauce as they soak up liquid.
Cornstarch
Thickens the liquid into a smooth sauce when boiled.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a silky mouthfeel to the sauce.

The step that matters

Boiling the cream mixture with cornstarch. Cornstarch only thickens fully once it reaches a boil, and the starch must be mixed with a little cold milk first to prevent lumps. Boiling also cooks off raw starch taste. Stirring keeps the sauce smooth and prevents scorching on the bottom of the kettle.

“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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