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Scalloped Oysters

A baked oyster dish layered with Boston cracker crumbs, oyster liquor, milk, butter, and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Scalloped Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Crush and roll the Boston crackers.

  2. Layer the crumbs in a buttered pudding dish.

Assemble

  1. Wet the crumbs with a mixture of oyster liquor and slightly warmed milk.

  2. Add a layer of oysters sprinkled with salt, pepper, and small bits of butter.

  3. Repeat layers until the dish is full, finishing with a layer of crumbs.

  4. Beat the egg into the milk and pour it over the top layer.

  5. Dot with bits of butter and bake at 350°F (175°C) for half an hour.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  3. Oyster + eggtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,103 recipes

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

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 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

Boston crackers
Crumbs form the bulk of the dish and soak up the liquid to give body.
Oysters
Provide the main flavour and tender texture as they cook in the layers.
Egg
Beaten into the milk, it helps the custard-like topping set when baked.
Milk
Moistens the crumbs and forms a custard with the egg, keeping the dish creamy.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and helps the top brown as it bakes.

The step that matters

Wetting the crumbs with liquor and milk. The crumbs must be evenly moistened but not soggy. Too much liquid makes the dish watery, while too little leaves dry, crumbly layers that do not hold together when baked.

“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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