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Scalloped Oyster-plant

A baked dish of stewed oyster plant with butter, milk, salt, cayenne pepper, and bread topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Scalloped Oyster-plant

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the purée

  1. Boil the oyster-plant until perfectly tender.

  2. Remove from water and rub through a colander.

  3. Add 2 ounces of butter, milk, salt, and cayenne pepper; mix well.

  4. If the mixture is not hot enough to melt the butter, warm it on the range for a few minutes.

Bake and serve

  1. Transfer to a baking dish, placing it in a pan of water.

  2. Cover the top with fine grated bread and dot with the remaining butter.

  3. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until golden brown.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

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

  5. Oyster + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,545 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

Oyster-plant
Forms the soft, starchy body of the dish once cooked and rubbed smooth.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and browns the crumb topping in the oven.
Milk
Loosens the purée and keeps it moist and creamy as it bakes.
Fine grated bread
Forms a crisp, golden crust over the top of the dish.

The step that matters

Warm the mixture enough to melt the butter. If the purée is too cool, the butter stays in lumps instead of blending in, leaving uneven richness and a greasy or grainy texture.

“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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