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Scalloped Oysters

A baked oyster dish layered with crackers, butter, and seasoned oysters.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mansfield, W. H., & co., Putnam, Conn., pub. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 20 ingredients
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Why it works: Fish and oyster match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 488 recipes mention both. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

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

Directions

Prepare

  1. Crush or roll a handful of oyster crackers.

Layer the dish

  1. Put a layer in the bottom of a buttered pudding dish, wet this with slightly warm milk.

  2. Add a layer of oysters sprinkled with salt, pepper, and bits of butter.

  3. Add another layer of cracker crumbs, moistened with milk.

  4. Continue layering until your dish is

By Mansfield, W. H., & co., Putnam, Conn., pub. [from old catalog]. 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. See the original page.

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. Fish + oystertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together488 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + breadtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27,145 recipes

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

  3. Butter + milktop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together81,222 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Cream + buttertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together41,494 recipes

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

  5. Clam + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together80 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).

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 flavor and tender texture in the dish.
Potatoes
Add body and starch that thickens and binds the filling.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture to the filling.
Egg
Helps bind the mixture and set it when cooked.
Butter
Adds richness and helps browning on the surface.

“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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