Skip to main content
Main

Panned or Deviled Oysters

Oysters cooked in butter, seasoned with pepper and salt, served on buttered toast; deviled version includes Worcestershire sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mary Elizabeth Lyles Wilson (1860–1924) · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Panned or Deviled Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Heat 2 tablespoons butter and add pepper and salt.

  2. Use 2 dozen oysters.

  3. Wash, wipe, and dry the oysters.

Cook and serve

  1. Put the butter in a spider.

  2. When the butter is melted, put the oysters in the spider.

  3. Dust the oysters with pepper and salt.

  4. Cook until the oysters curl.

  5. Serve on buttered toast.

  6. For deviled oysters, follow the same steps, adding one spoon of Worcestershire sauce and a dash of red pepper.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

117Calories
1 gProtein
12 gFat
2 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Soy Sauce1 tbsp (15ml)9
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Mary Elizabeth Lyles Wilson (1860–1924). 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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  3. Sauce + peppertop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,303 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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 (in the method)
The main ingredient; they firm up and curl as they cook, giving the dish its texture.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, coating the oysters and helping them cook gently in the pan.
Worcestershire sauce
Adds a savory, tangy depth to the deviled version.

The step that matters

Cook until the oysters curl. Oysters turn firm and curled as they cook, and continued heat past that point makes them tough and rubbery, so watch them closely.

“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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes