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Broiled Oysters on Toast

Broiled oysters served on buttered toast with seasoned melted butter, garnished with olives and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Broiled Oysters on Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the grill

  1. Preheat a grill over a clear fire.

  2. Grease the grill well with butter.

Broil the oysters

  1. Place the oysters on one half of the grill. Fold the other half of the grill down over the oysters.

  2. Broil the oysters, turning them once, until cooked but not overdone.

Assemble and serve

  1. Mix salt, cayenne pepper, and lemon juice into the melted butter.

  2. Cut the buttered bread into quarter slices.

  3. Place the oysters on top of the bread slices.

  4. Drizzle a little melted butter over each oyster.

  5. Garnish each oyster with olives and parsley.

  6. Serve immediately while hot.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  4. Olive + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,649 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Form the main body of the dish, cooking to a tender, juicy texture when broiled.
Butter
Greases the grill and adds richness and moisture to the oysters and bread.
Bread
Provides a crisp, absorbent base that holds the oysters and soaks up butter.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter and oysters.
Cayenne pepper
Adds gentle heat that seasons the butter sauce.

The step that matters

Broil the oysters until cooked but not overdone. Oysters turn firm and rubbery when overcooked, because heat tightens their proteins and squeezes out moisture. Pulling them off the grill as soon as they are opaque and just firm keeps them tender and juicy.

“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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