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Scalloped Oysters

Scalloped oysters are baked oysters topped with breadcrumbs, butter, and seasoning.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Scalloped Oysters

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

  1. Boil the oysters and their liquor, then remove the gills from the oysters and strain the liquor.

  2. Grease china oyster shells well and coat with breadcrumbs.

Assemble

  1. Place 2 or 3 divided oysters into each shell.

  2. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt, then pour a little oyster liquor over each.

  3. Sprinkle more breadcrumbs on top and pour melted butter over each shell.

Bake and serve

  1. Brown in the oven at 400°F (200°C) and serve very hot.

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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

  5. Oyster + peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,663 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

Oysters
Provide the main filling and a briny, savoury flavour.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping and soak up the juices.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the topping brown.
Oyster liquor
Adds moisture and concentrated oyster flavour to the filling.

The step that matters

Browning the topping in the oven. The breadcrumbs and butter need enough heat to turn golden and crisp. Too little heat leaves the topping pale and soggy, while too much can scorch the butter before the oysters warm 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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