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Scalloped Oysters

Scalloped oysters baked with butter, flour, stock, cream, pepper, salt, breadcrumbs, and oiled butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 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.

Make the sauce

  1. Scald the oysters in their own liquor, then remove them and discard the gills.

  2. Melt the butter in a pan, add the flour, and stir until smooth.

  3. Gradually add the white stock and cream, stirring until thickened.

  4. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.

Assemble and bake

  1. Layer the oysters in a baking dish, pour the sauce over them, and top with bread crumbs and oiled butter.

  2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) 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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  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).

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 seafood flavour and the tender body of the dish.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour to the sauce and helps the topping brown.
Flour
Thickens the stock and cream into a smooth, cohesive sauce.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the sauce.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping over the baked dish.

The step that matters

Thickening the sauce. Flour must be cooked in the melted butter and the liquid added gradually, stirring constantly, so the sauce thickens smoothly without lumps. Adding liquid too fast or skipping stirring can leave clumps of raw flour that taste pasty.

“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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