Skip to main content
Main

Oysters, Devilled

Oysters topped with cayenne pepper and butter, grilled and served with bread and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Oysters, Devilled

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Open the oysters and keep them in their shells with the liquor.

  2. Sprinkle cayenne pepper to taste on each oyster.

Cook

  1. Place the shells on a grill and add a bit of butter on top of each oyster.

  2. Cook over a clear, bright fire for 3 to 4 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve on a napkin with bread and butter as an accompaniment.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

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

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

  4. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Large oysters
Provide the main body of the dish, cooking gently in their own liquor and shell.
Cayenne pepper
Adds heat and a sharp, spicy flavour that contrasts with the richness of the butter.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour and helping the oysters brown lightly on the grill.

The step that matters

Cook over a clear, bright fire for 3 to 4 minutes. Oysters turn tough and rubbery when overcooked. A hot, direct fire cooks them quickly, just until the edges firm and the butter bubbles, so checking them early matters.

“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.

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesBread OmeletteBread Omelette60 recipesOatmeal BreadOatmeal Bread51 recipes