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Plain Broiled Oysters on Toast

A simple dish of oysters broiled with butter and served on toast, garnished with lemon and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Plain Broiled Oysters on Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broiler

  1. Brush a wire oyster broiler with softened butter.

  2. Lay the oysters in the broiler.

Broil and serve

  1. Broil over a hot fire for 2 to 3 minutes, basting once on each side with the butter.

  2. Serve the oysters side by side on a long slice of buttered toast.

  3. Garnish with lemon and parsley.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  3. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Oyster + parsleytop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,211 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Provide the main ingredient, cooking quickly in the hot fire until they firm and warm through.
Softened butter
Adds fat and moisture, coating the oysters and encouraging gentle browning during broiling.
Buttered toast
Gives a crisp, absorbent base that holds the oysters and soaks up their juices.

The step that matters

Broiling the oysters. Oysters cook in only a few minutes over high heat. Overcooking toughens their protein and makes them rubbery, so they should be watched closely and removed once just heated through.

“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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