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Escaloped Oysters

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Escaloped Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Crush and roll the crackers.

  2. Put a layer of crackers in a buttered pudding dish.

Assemble the layers

  1. Wet the crackers with a mixture of oyster liquor and slightly warmed milk.

  2. Add a layer of oysters.

  3. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

  4. Place small bits of butter on top.

  5. Repeat layers until the dish is full.

  6. Finish with a thicker layer of moistened crumbs.

  7. Beat the egg into the milk.

  8. Pour the mixture over the top layer.

  9. Add pieces of butter on top.

Bake

  1. Cover the dish.

  2. Bake for 30 minutes.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Oyster + eggtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,103 recipes

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

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 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 flavor and tender, briny filling between the cracker layers.
Friable crackers
Absorb the liquid and form the soft, crumb-like body of the dish.
Egg
Binds the milk mixture so it sets into a custard-like texture when baked.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, softening the crumbs and forming the custard.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the top brown and the custard taste rounder.

The step that matters

Pour the mixture over the top layer. The egg and milk mixture must soak evenly through the crumbs before baking. Egg proteins set as the dish heats, so uneven soaking can leave dry patches or a loose, watery section.

“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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