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Scalloped Oyster-plant

A baked dish of stewed oyster-plant with butter, milk, salt, cayenne pepper, and bread topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Scalloped Oyster-plant

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.

Prepare the purée

  1. Boil the oyster-plant until perfectly tender.

  2. Remove from water and rub through a colander.

  3. Add 2 ounces of butter, milk, salt, and cayenne pepper, and mix well.

  4. If not hot enough to melt the butter, warm on the stove for a few minutes.

Bake and serve

  1. Transfer the mixture to a baking dish and place the baking dish in a pan of water.

  2. Cover with finely grated bread and dot with remaining butter.

  3. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until golden brown.

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 + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  4. Oyster + milktop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,933 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Oyster + celerytop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,131 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Oyster-plant
Forms the soft, tender body of the dish once boiled and pressed through a colander.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and helps the top brown in the oven.
Milk
Loosens the purée and keeps it moist and creamy while it bakes.
Bread (in the method)
Forms a crumb topping that crisps and browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Bake in a water bath. Placing the baking dish in a pan of water keeps the mixture's temperature gentle and even, so the custardy purée sets without curdling or drying out before the top browns.

Swap the celery

The recipe marks celery as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, butter, milk, pepper):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Cinnamonfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

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