Skip to main content
Main

Oyster Stew, Fried and Escaloped, According to Delmonico

A stew of oysters cooked briefly in a salted liquid, served over milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Oyster and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,933 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Oyster Stew, Fried and Escaloped, According to Delmonico

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stew

  1. In a stew pan, combine the oyster liquor and water.

  2. Add salt, pepper, and rolled crackers.

  3. Bring to a boil on the stove.

  4. Add oysters to the boiling liquor and cook for 30 seconds.

Serve

  1. Prepare a dish with milk for serving.

  2. Pour the stew over the milk and 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 + milktop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,933 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + milktop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26,984 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  3. Oyster + peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,663 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, 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 flavor and tender texture when cooked briefly in the hot liquid.
Rolled crackers
Thicken the broth slightly as they soak up liquid and soften.
Milk
Adds richness and creaminess to the stew when poured over it.

The step that matters

Add oysters to the boiling liquor and cook for 30 seconds. Oysters toughen and shrink quickly when overcooked, so a very short cook in hot liquid keeps them tender and plump.

“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.

More oyster stew recipes

Dry 4Virginia 4Chicken 3 See all 211 →

You might also like

Mock Oyster SoupMock Oyster Soup21 recipesCorn FrittersCorn Fritters6 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipes