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Deviled Oysters for Six Persons

A baked oyster dish with a creamy sauce made from butter, flour, oyster liquor, milk, and seasonings, topped with bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Deviled Oysters for Six Persons

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the oysters

  1. Drain the oysters.

  2. Rinse them with cold water.

  3. Drain again.

  4. Place the oysters in a hot pan.

  5. Shake until the gills curl.

  6. Drain the oysters.

  7. Save the liquor.

  8. Chop the oysters finely.

Make the sauce

  1. Rub together the butter and flour in a bowl.

  2. Add the oyster liquor.

  3. Add the milk.

  4. Stir the mixture over heat until it boils.

  5. Add salt.

  6. Add onion juice.

  7. Add cayenne.

  8. Add black pepper.

  9. Add egg yolks.

  10. Add the chopped oysters.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into oyster shells, ramekin dishes, or a baking dish.

  2. Dust the top with bread crumbs.

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

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. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 texture of the filling once chopped and cooked.
Butter
Enriches the sauce and carries flavor, and with flour helps form the base.
Flour
Thickens the butter and liquid into a smooth sauce that holds the filling together.
Milk
Forms the body of the sauce, giving it a creamy, pourable texture when heated.
Egg yolks
Enrich and set the sauce, adding richness and body as it cooks.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned topping in the oven.

The step that matters

Stir the mixture over heat until it boils. The flour must be cooked through at a full boil to thicken the sauce and remove raw starch taste. Stopping early leaves the sauce thin and floury. Egg yolks are added afterward and should not be boiled hard, since high heat can curdle them.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, butter, flour, milk, pepper, egg, bread):

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, butter, flour, milk, pepper, egg, bread. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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