Skip to main content
Main

Scalloped Oysters

A baked oyster dish with a buttery, egg‑milk custard and breadcrumb topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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

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

  2. Roll the crackers or dry bread into crumbs.

Layer and bake

  1. Butter a deep baking dish and layer the crumbs and oysters, starting and ending with crumbs.

  2. Moisten each layer with oyster liquor, adding small pieces of butter and seasoning with salt and pepper.

  3. Beat the egg and mix it with the milk, then pour over the layered dish.

  4. Allow to heat through for 10 minutes, then bake for 45 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. Bread + buttertop 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
Provide the main flavour and tender, briny texture that the dish is built around.
Crackers or dry bread
Form the crumb layers that soak up liquid and give the dish its structure.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavour and helps the top brown.
Oyster liquor
Moistens the layers and seasons the dish with the oysters' own salty flavour.
Egg
Binds the milk custard so it sets softly around the crumbs and oysters.
Milk
Makes a custard with the egg that keeps the dish moist and tender.

The step that matters

Moistening the layers and pouring the custard. Crumbs need enough liquid to soften without turning soggy. The egg and milk must be poured evenly so the custard sets gently during baking rather than curdling or leaving dry pockets.

“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.

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesBread OmeletteBread Omelette60 recipesOatmeal BreadOatmeal Bread51 recipes