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Devilled Oysters

A dish of oysters cooked in a spiced oil and oyster liquor mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Olive and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 30,263 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Devilled Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. In a blender, mix the olive oil (or melted butter), Worcestershire sauce, cayenne, salt, and curry powder.

  2. Heat the mixture until it begins to warm.

  3. Add the oyster liquor and bring it to a boil.

Cook the oysters

  1. Once boiling, add the oysters and turn them two or three times.

  2. Cook until the oysters are plump.

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. Olive + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

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

  2. Oyster + saucetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Oyster + olivetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together709 recipes

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

  4. Olive + saucetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,568 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. 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 body and briny flavor, and their protein firms as they cook.
Olive oil or melted butter
Adds fat for richness and carries the spices through the sauce.
Oyster liquor
Supplies liquid and concentrated sea flavor to the sauce as it heats.
Curry powder
Adds warm, aromatic spice notes that build depth in the sauce.

The step that matters

Cook until the oysters are plump. Oyster proteins firm up quickly with heat. Once they plump and their edges curl, further cooking squeezes out moisture and makes them tough and rubbery, so they should be pulled off the heat promptly.

“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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