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Scalloped Oysters A. LA Reine

Scalloped oysters simmered in white sauce, then broiled with breadcrumbs and clarified butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Scalloped Oysters A. LA Reine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the sauce

  1. Rinse the oysters in their strained liquor.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the oyster liquor with the white sauce and thicken if needed with flour or arrow-root mixed with butter.

  3. Add the oysters to the sauce and simmer for 3-4 minutes.

Bake and brown

  1. Transfer the oysters into scallop shells and cover with fine bread crumbs.

  2. Pour clarified butter over the crumbs and brown them using a salamander or under a broiler.

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. Flour + buttertop 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 + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,545 recipes

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

  5. Oyster + saucetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Flour and butter 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

Oysters
Provide the main flavour and tender, briny texture when gently simmered in the sauce.
White sauce
Forms a creamy, binding base that holds the oysters together and keeps them moist.
Fine bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping that gives contrast to the soft filling.
Clarified butter
Adds fat that helps the crumbs brown evenly and crisp under heat.

The step that matters

Simmering the oysters. Oysters toughen and shrink when overcooked, so they should be added to the sauce only to heat through for a few minutes.

“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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