Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Oysters on Toast
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Strain the liquor from the oysters.
Make the sauce
In a kettle, combine the cream and butter and bring to a boil.
Mix the flour with a little cold water, then add it to the boiling mixture.
Add the oysters and let them boil briefly, seasoning with salt and pepper.
Serve
Place the toasted bread in a dish and pour the oyster mixture over it before serving.
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.
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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,184 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Oyster + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,545 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Provide the main flavor and tender texture of the dish.
- Cream
- Adds richness and a smooth, silky body to the sauce.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a rounded, savory flavor.
- Flour
- Thickens the boiling liquid into a smooth sauce.
The step that matters
Add the oysters and let them boil briefly. Oysters toughen and turn rubbery when overcooked, so they should only heat through briefly in the sauce until their edges just curl.
“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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