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Escaloped Oysters

Baked oysters topped with butter, breadcrumbs, and milk.

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 ↓

Escaloped 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

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Spread a little butter over the bottom of a shallow 4-quart milk pan.

  3. Cover the butter with a layer of mixed bread crumbs.

  4. Scald the oysters in their liquor just enough to make them shrink slightly.

Layer and bake

  1. Place half of the oysters close together on the layer of crumbs. Add more crumbs. Drop small pieces of butter. Season with pepper and salt.

  2. Layer the remaining oysters on top.

  3. Cover with the remaining bread crumbs and butter.

  4. Mix the milk with the oyster liquor. Strain the mixture into the pan, moistening the top.

  5. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes.

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

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

  3. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

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

  5. Oyster + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,545 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
Form the main body of the dish and provide its briny flavor.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and helps the crumbs brown on top.
Bread and cracker crumbs
Form the layers that soak up liquid and hold the oysters together.
Milk
Adds moisture and softens the crumbs as the dish bakes.

The step that matters

Scald the oysters just enough to shrink them slightly. Brief heating firms the oysters and releases juices without toughening them. Overcooking makes them rubbery and dries the dish, so stop once they just begin to shrink.

“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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