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Oysters Au Gratin

A baked dish of macaroni, gravy, oysters, Parmesan, butter, pepper, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Parmesan cheese and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,163 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Oysters Au Gratin

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Chop the macaroni and combine it with the gravy in a chafing dish.

  2. Cook for 15 minutes.

  3. Add the oysters, cheese, butter, and a little pepper and salt. Stir until the cheese is dissolved.

  4. Serve immediately.

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. Parmesan cheese + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  3. Parmesan cheese + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,322 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  4. Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Meat + oystertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together536 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Macaroni
Provides starchy body and bulk that holds the sauce and oysters together.
Meat gravy
Supplies liquid and savoury flavour that coats the pasta and softens it as it cooks.
Oysters
Add briny, delicate seafood flavour and tender texture to the dish.
Parmesan cheese
Melts into the gravy to add richness, salty depth and a silky texture.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth mouthfeel and rounded flavour.

The step that matters

Stir until the cheese is dissolved. Parmesan melts smoothly only when the mixture is warm but not boiling hard. Overheating can make the cheese stringy or grainy and cause the fat to separate, so the sauce loses its smoothness.

“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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