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Scalloped Oysters

Scalloped oysters are baked oysters topped with a white stock and cream sauce, bread crumbs, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter 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 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the oysters

  1. Scald the oysters in their own liquor, then remove the gills from the oysters.

  2. Strain the liquor to remove any grit.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt 1 ounce of butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add enough flour to the melted butter to create a paste.

  3. Stir in the white stock and cream, mixing well.

Assemble and bake

  1. Layer the oysters in a baking dish, pour the sauce over them, and top with bread crumbs and oiled butter.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) 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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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 (in the method)
Are the main ingredient, cooked gently in their own liquor to firm and flavour them.
Butter
Enriches the sauce and, with the flour, forms the paste that thickens it.
Flour
Thickens the melted butter into a paste that gives the sauce body.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the sauce.
White stock
Adds liquid and savoury flavour to the sauce, thinning it into a pourable consistency.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp topping that browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Making the flour and butter paste. Flour must be cooked briefly in melted butter and stirred smooth before liquid is added; otherwise it clumps and the sauce turns lumpy and floury rather than silky.

“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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