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Scalloped Oysters

A baked oyster dish topped with breadcrumbs and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. 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. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Butter a baking dish and cover the bottom with a layer of bread crumbs.

  3. Moisten the crumbs with ½ cup of cream or milk.

  4. Add salt, pepper, and bits of butter.

Assemble and bake

  1. Add 1 quart of oysters and their liquor, along with more pepper and butter.

  2. Cover thickly with crumbs and place more butter on top.

  3. Cover the dish and bake for 30 to 45 minutes until the juice bubbles up.

  4. Remove the cover and brown the top for a few minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve in the baking dish or in buttered scallop shells, garnished with parsley.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  4. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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, releasing their liquor as they cook to moisten the dish.
Cream or milk
Moistens the bread crumbs and adds richness to the sauce-like base.
Bread crumbs
Provide structure and absorb liquid, forming a soft, layered topping and base.
Butter
Adds fat and flavor, and helps the top crumbs brown in the oven.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid so the juices become creamy rather than watery.

The step that matters

Covering the dish while baking. The covered bake lets the oysters cook gently in their own liquor, so they turn tender rather than tough and dry. Uncovering too early can dry the surface before the juices have thickened and bubbled through.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, cream, flour, butter, pepper, nutmeg, bread):

  1. Cinnamonfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Sagefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, cream, flour, butter, pepper, nutmeg, bread. 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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