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Broiled Oysters a LA Creme

Broiled oysters coated in egg and cracker crumbs, served with a hot milk‑flour sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Broiled Oysters a LA Creme

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oysters

  1. Drain the oysters and season them with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  2. Beat the egg in a bowl.

  3. Dip each oyster in the egg, then roll in the powdered cracker.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, scald the milk.

  2. Mix the flour with a little cold water until smooth, then add the mixture to the scalded milk.

  3. Bring the mixture to a boil.

Broil and serve

  1. Broil the oysters over a brisk fire until golden.

  2. Pour the hot sauce over the broiled oysters and serve.

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

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

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Fine oysters
Form the main body of the dish, cooked until tender and golden under the broiler.
Egg
Acts as a binding wash so the cracker coating adheres to the oysters.
Powdered cracker
Forms a crisp, golden crust that browns under the broiler.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth, creamy sauce.
Milk
Forms the base of the cream sauce, providing richness and moisture.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the dish.

The step that matters

Bring the mixture to a boil. Flour must be fully heated so its starch swells and thickens the milk; undercooked flour leaves a pasty, raw taste and a thin sauce that does not cling to the oysters.

“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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