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Scalloped Oysters

Oysters baked with cracker crumbs, butter, milk, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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. Drain the liquor from the oysters.

Layer and bake

  1. In a baking dish, place a layer of cracker crumbs, then a layer of oysters.

  2. Sprinkle a little salt, pepper, lemon juice, and butter over the oysters.

  3. Repeat layers until all oysters are used.

  4. Cover with remaining cracker crumbs.

  5. Mix the oyster liquor and milk, then pour over the layers.

  6. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for about one hour, until a brown crust forms.

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. Butter + milktop 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. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

  4. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Oyster + milktop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,933 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Form the main filling and provide the savory flavor of the dish.
Cracker crumbs
Form the layers that soak up liquid and give structure to the casserole.
Milk
Adds moisture that softens the crumbs and forms a creamy sauce as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat and richness and helps the top crust brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Pouring the liquor and milk over the layers. The liquid must reach the crumbs evenly so they soften and bind the dish; too little leaves dry layers, while the crumbs and oysters are then cooked through during the long bake.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, butter, milk):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Peachfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, butter, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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