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Scalloped Oysters

Layered oysters baked with bread, butter, nutmeg, cayenne, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Drain the oysters and lay them on a towel.

  2. Mix grated nutmeg, cayenne pepper, and salt together in a bowl.

  3. Grease two baking dishes with butter.

Layer

  1. Layer bread at the bottom of each dish.

  2. Place oysters one by one on the bread.

  3. Sprinkle lightly with the nutmeg mixture.

  4. Add a layer of bread and butter.

  5. Add a layer of oysters.

  6. Repeat the previous three steps until you have three oyster layers in each dish, finishing with a thick layer of buttered bread on top.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes.

  2. Serve on a plate, covering the dish with a folded napkin.

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. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  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. Nutmeg + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,997 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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 juices as they cook to moisten the bread.
Bread
Forms the layers that soak up the oyster liquor and butter, giving a soft, custardy texture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the bread brown and carry the seasoning through the dish.
Nutmeg
Adds a warm, aromatic flavour that complements the oysters.

The step that matters

Layering the oysters and bread. Keeping each oyster layer covered with bread and butter protects the oysters from drying out and overcooking in the oven, so they stay tender and the dish stays moist.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Sagefits about as well
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, pepper, butter, 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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