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Escaloped Oysters

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and oyster are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 2,544 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

The recipe

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat, shellfish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

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

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Season stale bread crumbs with salt and pepper.

  3. Butter a deep dish and cover the bottom with the seasoned crumbs.

  4. Add a layer of oysters and dot with butter.

  5. Continue layering oysters, crumbs, and butter until the dish is filled.

  6. Bake until cooked through, covering with paper if the top browns too much.

  7. Alternatively, scallop the oysters separately and serve in well-cleaned shells.

  8. You can also use slices of well-buttered bread instead of crumbs or top with puff pastry.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Bread + oystertop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,544 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Bread + buttertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27,145 recipes

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

  3. Butter + oystertop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together8,175 recipes

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

  4. Bread + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Pepper + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together85,512 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

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