Skip to main content
Main

Broiled Oysters

Oysters coated in butter and cracker crumbs, broiled until juices flow.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Oyster and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,184 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓

Broiled Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean the oysters and dry them between towels.

  2. Lift the oysters with a fork by the tough muscles.

Coat and broil

  1. Dip the oysters in melted butter, then in seasoned cracker crumbs.

  2. Place the oysters in a buttered wire broiler.

  3. Broil over a clear fire until the juices flow, turning while broiling.

Serve

  1. Serve with or without Maitre d'Hotel butter.

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

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

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

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

  3. Oyster + peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,663 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 protein, which firms and turns opaque as they cook.
Seasoned cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, golden crust that browns under the broiler's direct heat.
Melted butter
Carries the crumbs and adds richness, helping the coating brown evenly.

The step that matters

Broil until the juices flow, turning while broiling. Oysters overcook quickly and turn rubbery. Watching for the juices to flow signals they are just done, and turning them exposes both sides to heat so the crumb coating browns without drying the meat.

“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.

More broiled oysters recipes

on Toast 4 See all 108 →

You might also like

Mock Oyster SoupMock Oyster Soup21 recipesCorn FrittersCorn Fritters6 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipes