Recreating an Oysters Rockefeller Recipe From Taste

Hi, I'm Hana, I'm in the BA test Kitchen

to have a super secret conversation about Chris Morocco.

Once again, we're putting Chris's super taster

abilities to the test.

This is Boisterous Rockefeller by Serious Eats.

I'm challenging Chris to recreate this dish

with all of the ingredients in just one day.

He'll be able to taste it, touch it, and smell it

but at no point will he be able to see this dish.

At the end of the day, we will come back

to see his creation and I'll be the judge.

[suspenseful music]

Hmm, like almost like a Bok choy choice stir fry.

Like, something kind of chlorophylly but with like,

a meaty undertone.

[Hana] Is this edible? No.

Thank you.

That's the kind of energy I need all day.

Like, I literally don't know what this is.

There's kind of like, an almost, like a funky fermented

seafood product.

Oh, I see what's happening.

Oh my God.

Like a little piece of this broke off,

like the crispiest tortilla like, you've ever had, you know,

and then suddenly it reveals itself to be an oyster shell.

Okay, things are starting to make a little bit more sense.

It feels like there's simply like, a slightly fatty mixture

with an oyster under it.

What is it, like oysters Rockefeller kind of vibe to it?

Maybe cheesy, herby garlicy sauce broiled or baked.

I'm thinking, Oh, what if you made sort of

a compound butter?

Could be some parsley, could be some basil,

maybe some chive.

I think I got a tiny little bit of shallot, maybe.

Something with like, a little bit of like an aliumy

kick in there.

Like a very salty, aged cheese if anything.

Like a little bit of Parmesan.

Two pieces of lemon.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

Five, right?

A bed of rock salt maybe.

Yeah, like a really super coarse sea salt.

Cool, alright.

The words that I'm drawn to here are oysters Rockefeller,

but I don't actually know like, what that means.

I don't usually get cooked oysters.

Well, before you throw it at me, I'ma put my glasses on

before we have an accident here.

Time to make a grocery list.

So we need oysters, we need butter,

we need salt, we need rock salt

or you know, whatever.

Lemons, parsley, chives, question mark.

Basil, question mark.

Garlic, shallot.

I'm not super confident in the shallot.

I'm putting Parmesan down because I think we're gonna

have to run some like, side by side tests.

Maybe I'll throw miso in there just for [beep] and giggles.

Okay, somebody's gonna shop these ingredients for me

and then I will have my first shot of the dish.

[suspenseful music]

In front of me I have my groceries.

I think we're gonna make some magic happen here.

The main thing I believe is just creating this

seasoned compound butter let's just call it.

We wanna use butter and multiple mix-ins.

The easiest way to do that is for the butter to be soft.

Let's soften this up just a little bit.

10 seconds at P five, you learned it here first.

I'm gonna be making this compound butter

a few different ways.

Garlic's going to be the same across the board.

Just a fine chop for all three versions I'm gonna do

right now.

Roughly a third of it into each one.

So we'll do a little bit of shallot in one of them.

We can get that really fine.

I'm 50/50 on whether it might be in there.

It's the absence of the texture

that's bothering me most.

Now herbs.

Alright, we're gonna do a little sliced chive.

We're going triple allium on number one.

[Speaker 1] Ooh-ooh!

Welcome to the thunderdome.

I'm gonna do parsley across the board.

Wouldn't it be funny if like, all these things were actually

just like, dumped into a food processor?

[processor whirring]

Now basil is going to go into two,

and because three is really just parsley

I'm gonna do a little more for that one.

Alright, now, we'll do a couple tablespoons

of butter in each, room temperature,

it's nice and pliable now.

Salt across the board.

And keeping track of what's in each.

Number one has butter, garlic, shallots, chive,

parsley, and salt.

Number two has butter, basil, parsley, garlic, and salt.

Number three has just parsley butter with garlic and salt.

Here in number three you do retain more

of like, the grassy sharpness of the parsley,

but in a way that makes me feel like it's like, wrong.

Let's heat these up and then see what they're like melted.

So there's one, there's two, and there's two and a half.

I'm not gonna broil it,

I'm just gonna let them get a little melty.

Wait a couple minutes, all right?

The tape might set on fire.

We didn't anticipate all possible outcomes when I was

putting it on the tint, so alright, let's see what's what.

Just a couple minutes.

I mean, if you can get past the smell of cooked tape.

Pretty interesting.

These only were brought to the point of like,

kind of sizzling.

First test is, you know, am I getting pieces,

discernible pops of texture in there.

Version one with the shallot, I would tend to say yes.

Two, two does not have the shallot, it does have the basil.

The basilness of the basil is really present here,

and not in a way that feels correct, you know?

Parsley on its own, leans a little bit grassy

and a little bit boring.

I'm getting still more texture from my version

than in the original dish.

Everything about one feels pretty spot on to me.

Now that we've got like, a version of it as is,

maybe we'll do a little bit of cheese in a separate bit

of option one.

I'm seeing if the Parmesan melds with the general

kind of savory richness of this butter.

The parm does introduce like, a little bit

of like, a funky element that I don't know

is the right funky element here.

Version one A, no parm.

So that's the one we're gonna work off of right now.

So I'm just gonna bulk it out.

So we've got shallot, we've got garlic,

we're gonna go full stick of butter, chives,

parsley and salt.

I am gonna roll this compound butter

into an even compact cylinder and just chill it slightly.

I want it to reach a point where I can slice it.

I'm gonna start shucking oysters while that's firming up,

I'm gonna see if I can get away with this,

just to keep them upright, keep the butter inside.

But ultimately for the final plate up we will use the salt.

I think the hardest part is just popping the hinge.

Also smell every single one.

If it doesn't smell good, no.

Don't get greedy, all right?

Scoop along the shell and then boom.

[Speaker 1] What kind of oysters are we working with here?

I don't know.

A lot of it just comes down to size.

Like, this is a nice size.

An oyster that's a little bit too big where you're tempted

to take a couple of bites on it.

Not for me.

So oysters are shucked ready to receive butter.

We're looking at like, two to three minutes

under the boiler maybe.

All right, so I've got our rock salt

that we're just going to use 'cause that is what's gonna

keep these things upright.

Get these on a plate while they're still warm.

A little lemon garnish.

This is my first attempt at the dish.

The way that it looks with all those bits

of herb and everything.

When the original dish was in my mouth it felt more

homogenous than this.

Maybe it's just being able to see it,

but I do feel like the herbs here feel more present.

Flavors are nice.

Amount salt in the butter was good.

I know that there isn't cheese in it, but you know,

but the original was kind of like, ooh,

could there be some parm in here?

So for scores, ingredients wise,

do I think I'm truly missing big things though?

Like eh, flavor wise, not necessarily.

Maybe I'll come in with a 75 on that.

Technique.

Open the oyster, put the thing on the oyster.

Maybe I'll go with like, an 80.

Appearance.

I would hope that I'm somewhere close to a 90 here.

Taste, I mean honestly I think I'm pretty close here.

I mean, maybe like, 85.

My actual scores are on this paper.

Let's see how I really did.

[groans]

All right, ingredients, my actual's a 61,

technique is a 68, appearance 89, taste 70.

No easy days, you know?

Overall is a 72.

It sucks when like, ingredients and technique are both low

because there's just a lot of different things

that could be in play.

I really wanted this to be a layup today.

We're looking at like, a half court shot.

[suspenseful music]

Six.

All right, we're going six next time.

I missed one in there.

On the nose I get brine and butter.

I'm not completely willing to rule out like,

just going crazy and putting, you know,

trying some miso in there.

To the extent that there are aromatics in here,

it's like they've been really cooked out.

I think I'm gonna make a pastier herb mixture.

I think I'm gonna sweat out my aromatics.

Maybe we'll go with a little bit of black pepper this time.

I don't hate the idea of pre-cooking

the garlic and/or shallot.

I'm wondering if we have like, a little bit

of like, a back note of anise in there.

Like a licorice kind of quality the way tarragon gives you.

Fresh fennel bulb could be very finely chopped

and you'd have to pre-cook it.

You could also do a touch of an alcohol, like a Pernod.

[Speaker 1] What's Pernod?

It's a sort of like southern French digestive, almost.

Like a really strong fennel anise kind of quality to it.

I think I'm done with this.

Let's take the dish away.

I'm just gonna map this out back in the notebook.

This question of whether or not there's like,

cheese in there is still kind of killing me, but I feel like

I have to just err on the side of like, believing

that there probably is.

So I think we split up our fats, use a little bit

of olive oil to cook out some garlic shallot

and season that.

And then there's gonna be an herb mixture over here.

Holds off butter, parsley, chives,

tarragon or fennel, question mark.

And then also potentially salt and pepper over here,

you know, with like, our butter mixture parm,

I'm less inclined to use a food processor if you are using

butter just because it's just gonna be like a pasty mess.

I would consider having the basil back.

The Pernod feels like a nuclear option

so I'm inclined to like, leave that on the side.

Let's just start chopping some stuff.

We're gonna go real heavy on these aromatics,

like, we're gonna use a lot more now

that they're being cooked.

I like fennel, you know, I feel like its mere presence

can like, derail a meal very quickly,

so I just wanna like, err on the side

of chopping it rather fine.

I've got a fine chop on the shallot.

We're going ever so slightly less fine on the garlic

this time, and knowing that the cooking process

is gonna break it down a little bit more,

and I'm just gonna cook it all together.

Have this going real low on the stove.

I could use butter for this, but olive oil just makes

a little bit more sense.

There's no risk of it browning.

I really wanna cook this out.

We're gonna keep that on like, just like a mellow roll

and check back on it.

We'll do like, a medium chop on the herbs.

Sliced chives.

And then we're gonna do parsley next.

Got our herbs ready to go.

Let's grate some cheese, I guess.

You know, pretty soft.

I just want this to cool down just a little bit

before I go putting it into the butter.

I don't want the butter to break and melt.

Getting some black pepper.

Got a food processor, really going for it.

Butter is soft.

We'll try working it together here.

Cooling down this fennel mixture.

I just wanna make sure like, the butter stays pliable

but not melty.

Put this whole mixture in there.

Little pinch of salt.

Consistency is way different.

I mean, we've got more of like, a green hued paste.

Here is my herby butter situation.

Next we've got six, count 'em,

six oysters, not five.

And you have to remember like, the oyster is not rooting

for you, the oyster wants you to fail.

Okay, friends.

So we're going loose this time.

Just gonna like, rock it like that.

Again, just like, take everything I did before

and find a different way to do it.

And also change some ingredients

and hopefully screw up a little less.

And that's the show.

All right, in we go, three minutes.

I mean, it looks okay.

There's a little bit more of like, a stain

to the butter itself.

So rock salt here.

Not for human consumption.

A lot of people make that mistake.

Yeah.

This is my final attempt at the dish.

I'm leaning more and more on the idea

that this is oysters Rockefeller.

I think, I just can't think of what other name

to ascribe to this dish.

So I'm gonna give myself some scores.

Ingredient wise, we were at my actual, 61?

[Speaker 1] Yep.

Is that true?

That's not good.

Maybe let's say like, we're squeaking by with a 70 now.

Technique-wise, okay, that's where I'm like,

Hey we made big changes.

We gotta go big or go home.

I would say like, maybe I'm at a 75 technique-wise.

Appearance, again, let's be bullish.

Let's say 92.

And taste-wise, I don't know where we're at.

We'll figure out taste when Hana comes over.

[Speaker 1] Are you scared?

Oh my god.

They don't call her the hammer for nothing, you know?

Like, she [beep] drops it and I'm not talking one of those

like, 16 ounce jobs.

I'm talking like, 24 ounce framing hammer on your

[beep] thumb.

Ruin your day.

Let's go get her.

Christobal. Hammer.

Hello.

Hana, sorry.

[Hana] Oh, oh.

This is one of those classic instances

where I think I know what the dish is

but I've never made it.

I think I might have tasted it one time.

[Chris] Shall we take a gander? Yeah, sure,

let's do it.

Oysters Rockefeller.

A classic.

[Chris] Wow is it smooth.

[Hana] It is smooth, it's very green.

[Chris] It's very green.

Yours looks very appetizing.

[Chris] Thank you. Yes.

[Chris] Wrong but appetizing.

That's like, what she was building up to.

Yours is almost giving an escargot situation,

but there is something in the texture here

that you're not quite getting.

Garlic, shallots, you got those.

Scallion whites, you don't have that.

Fennel, and, very distinct ingredient here, Celery,

which I'm surprised you missed

'cause it has such a strong identity.

Maybe it's all the butter coating your palate.

My brain, yeah.

Did you deglaze anything?

No, I was questioning it, let's just say.

There is Absinthe in here, and if you kind of like,

think about when this dish originated,

probably like, a heavy hand of something

always goes into these dishes, especially when it's used

as a deglazing agent.

It will be masked, right? Yeah, it's gonna be

toned down. By whatever else down, yeah.

So this goes for a very thorough spin in the food processor.

So after you achieve that very pureed aromatic base

is when you introduce the fresh herbs,

and if I'm not mistaken, the leaves of both celery

and the fennel fronds get added in as well,

so I'm sure that's adding like, additional green both

visually and, you know, in taste.

You had mentioned parm adding something

in the texture.

May I present to you, your friend and mine, Panko.

It is really serving almost a utilitarian purpose in helping

to like, keep everyone together as a binding agent.

I believe a pastry bag was used

to elegantly, you know-

Which you can clearly tell from the final dish.

And then you dolloped it on.

[Chris] Sure did. Obviously.

Yeah.

So let's talk scoring.

In ingredients, you gave yourself a 70.

I think I'll give you a 70 as well.

The Absinthe and the Panko were pretty big misses

in addition to missing celery altogether.

For technique you gave yourself a 75

and I actually gave you a 90.

That's very generous of me. [laughs]

Next, let's talk about appearance.

I'm going to say 85 because it's more of a chopped herb

look, and this is much more of like, it looks to be

a little bit more of a coated or mound.

[Hana] Yeah. Atop the oyster.

Okay, now lastly, taste.

I'm so curious to hear your thoughts.

You gotta taste. Cold light of day.

No, I'm oystered out.

I'm going topping only.

They're tender.

Hmm< you taste the celery, you can't miss it.

I wouldn't buy a head of celery for it.

[Hana] I'll put it that way. Okay.

I taste the Pernod that you were thinking about using.

Yeah, but to your credit, I don't think I am tasting

much Absinthe either.

And also, it wasn't that much.

Okay, let's taste yours now, Chris.

[Chris] It's too assertive-

But delicious.

How would you rate yourself on taste?

I would put myself down at like, a 70.

I think it's just- Whoa.

[Chris] Yeah. Chris, have some confidence.

No, I mean-

I was gonna give you an 80.

The family of ingredients are the same,

but yeah, it's like a little, like first of all,

parm, it's cheese, t's something, you're bringing

something else to the table.

[ Hana] Yep. And it is,

it can quickly be overwhelming.

So after all is said and done, your score given by you

is a 77.

How do you feel about that?

What I feel best about is

how much I changed the technique and how-

[Hana] For the better. For the better, right.

And how much closer that brought me to the original.

My score to you today is a healthy 81.

That's, that's yeah, that's fair.

That's like, B territory.

There's so much fat that you kind of lose sight of

what else is going on.

Despite that, I think you really have the essence

of what this is purporting to be.

All right, I can easily live with that.

I feel really good about some of the changes we made

in between my first take and my second,

but not quite enough, you know>

Made a couple bad calls, and it's okay.

I would hate for people to think that like, the barometer

for success with this dish

or any kind of like, baked bivalve kind of situation

is like, some of these really specific ingredients.

Broad strokes from like, a technique standpoint,

I was pretty much right there, and that's really gratifying.

She could see that.

It's fine, I'm fine, great.

I definitely don't need to talk about it anymore.