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Scolloped Oysters

A baked oyster dish layered with bread crumbs, cream, and oyster liquor.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Oyster and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,545 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Scolloped 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.

Prepare

  1. Remove the oysters from their liquor and set aside.

  2. Grate the loaf of bread or crush the crackers.

Layer and assemble

  1. Wet a pie dish with cream and sprinkle a thick layer of crumbs.

  2. Add a layer of oysters seasoned with coarse sea salt.

  3. Pour a little rich cream over the oysters.

  4. Add another layer of crumbs and oysters, repeating until the dish is filled.

  5. Pour the reserved oyster liquor over the entire dish.

Bake

  1. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 20 to 30 minutes until browned.

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 + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,545 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Oyster + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,886 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Bread + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,789 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
Provide the main filling, cooking gently in the layers and releasing flavor into the dish.
Bread or crackers
Form the crumb layers that absorb cream and liquor and help hold the dish together.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the crumbs and oysters tender as they bake.

The step that matters

Bake until browned. Baking long enough to brown the top sets the crumbs and cooks the oysters through, while too little time leaves the dish wet and underdone.

“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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