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Scalloped Oysters

Scalloped oysters are baked oysters topped with a butter and breadcrumb mixture, seasoned with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Remove gills from oysters and wash them in their own liquor.

  2. Soak bread crumbs in the oyster liquor.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place the oysters in scallop shells with a bit of butter and season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

  2. Make a paste with the soaked bread crumbs and butter, then cover the oysters with it.

  3. Roast in a 400°F (200°C) oven or before the fire.

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. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Bread + nutmegtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,997 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Provide the main filling, releasing savory juices that flavor the dish as it cooks.
Bread crumbs
Soak up the oyster liquor and form a moist paste that covers and protects the oysters.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and helps the crumb topping brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Covering the oysters with the bread crumb paste. The paste should be evenly spread and moist so it seals the oysters and keeps them from drying out while the topping browns.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, bread, butter, pepper):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Sagefits about as well
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, bread, butter, 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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