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Scalloped Oysters

Scalloped oysters are baked with bread crumbs, egg, butter, and seasonings.

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

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Drain the oysters and season them with coarse sea salt and Cayenne pepper.

  2. In a bowl, mix the stale bread crumbs with coarse sea salt and black pepper, then add the chopped hard boiled egg and mix well.

Layer and bake

  1. Butter a deep dish and layer in half of the egg and crumb mixture.

  2. Add a layer of oysters on top, placing small lumps of butter on them.

  3. Repeat the layers until all ingredients are used, finishing with a layer of crumbs on top.

  4. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until hot and 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. Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

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

  3. Oyster + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,545 recipes

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

  4. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Oyster + eggtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,103 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Provide the main flavor and tender, briny body of the dish.
Stale bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the layers body and a golden, crisp top when baked.
Hard boiled egg
Adds richness and a soft, binding texture to the crumb layers.
Butter
Adds fat that promotes browning and richness on the top and between layers.

The step that matters

Layering and the final bake. Oysters release liquid as they heat, so the crumb layers must soak it up and the top must be covered with crumbs. Baking only until hot and golden keeps the oysters from overcooking and turning rubbery.

“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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