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Scalloped Oysters

Scalloped oysters are baked oysters topped with cracker crumbs, butter, and milk or cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

Scalloped Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Drain the oysters in a colander and remove any shell particles.

Layer

  1. Sprinkle some cracker crumbs in the bottom of a baking dish.

  2. Layer oysters in the dish, seasoning with salt and pepper, and add bits of butter.

  3. Cover the oysters with a layer of cracker crumbs.

  4. Repeat layering oysters and crumbs until the dish is full.

  5. Pour enough milk (or cream) over the layers to moisten the crackers.

Bake

  1. Bake for 20 minutes if using one can, or 30 minutes for two cans at 350°F (175°C).

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).

  4. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Provide the main filling and the briny, savory flavor of the dish.
Cracker crumbs
Absorb the milk and cream and form soft layers that hold the oysters together.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that helps the top and edges brown during baking.
Milk or cream
Moistens the cracker crumbs so they soften and bind the layers as they bake.

The step that matters

Moisten the crackers without flooding the dish. Enough liquid must soak the crumbs so they soften and bind the layers, but too much makes the dish watery and loose. Pour slowly over the layers until the crumbs are damp.

“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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