Skip to main content
Main

Scalloped Oysters

Scalloped oysters are baked oysters topped with bread crumbs, butter, celery seed, wine, and oyster liquor.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Scalloped Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Assemble

  1. Remove oysters from their liquor and place some in a baking dish.

  2. Mix bread crumbs with pepper and salt, then sprinkle over the oysters.

  3. Add celery seed and small bits of butter on top.

  4. Layer more oysters and repeat the seasoning.

  5. Pour white wine and oyster liquor over the layers.

  6. Top with additional grated bread.

Bake

  1. Bake at 400°F (200°C) until heated through.

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. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  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).

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Provide the main filling and their briny flavor throughout the dish.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and form a crisp, browned topping as the dish bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the topping brown in the oven.
White wine
Adds acidity and moisture that steams the oysters as they heat.
Oyster liquor
Adds moisture and concentrated oyster flavor to the layers.

The step that matters

Bake until heated through. Oysters cook quickly and turn rubbery if overbaked, so they should be heated just until they firm and the liquid is hot. The bread topping needs enough time to brown, so check the dish closely near the end of baking.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, bread, pepper, butter, white wine):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, bread, pepper, butter, white wine. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesCream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesBread OmeletteBread Omelette60 recipes