Skip to main content
Main

Oyster Stew

A stew of oysters simmered in milk and butter, seasoned with salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Oyster Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oysters

  1. Combine the oysters and cold water in a porcelain saucepan over medium heat.

  2. When the oysters swell, remove them.

  3. Strain the liquid; do not let it boil.

  4. Place the oysters in a warm tureen and add bits of butter on top.

Make the stew

  1. Boil the strained liquid with the rich milk for 5 minutes.

  2. Add salt to taste.

  3. If desired, mix in the rolled, sifted crackers.

  4. Pour the boiling liquid over the oysters.

  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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Oyster + milktop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,933 recipes

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

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 of the stew.
Rich milk
Adds richness and creaminess to the liquid that surrounds the oysters.
Butter
Adds fat and a silky richness as it melts over the hot oysters.
Rolled, sifted crackers
Optionally thicken the stew slightly as they absorb liquid.

The step that matters

Strain the liquid; do not let it boil.. Oysters toughen and shrink when overcooked, so they should only be heated until they swell. Keeping the strained liquid from boiling at this stage protects their tenderness before the milk is added.

“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