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Broiled Oysters

Broiled oysters served with a brown sauce made from oyster juice, butter, flour, and milk or cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Broiled Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oysters

  1. Wipe the oysters dry and sprinkle with coarse sea salt and red pepper.

  2. Butter a small gridiron and prepare a clear, hot fire.

Make the brown sauce

  1. For the brown sauce, heat the oyster juice in a pan.

  2. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in another pan until it turns a delicate brown.

  3. Add 4 tablespoons of flour to the butter and mix well.

  4. Slowly add the heated oyster juice, then stir in 1 cup of hot milk or cream.

  5. Season with salt and pepper, and keep warm over a pan of hot water until needed.

  6. Optionally, add a few cloves or a stick of mace for flavor.

Broil and serve

  1. Broil the oysters quickly until cooked through.

  2. Serve hot with a small bit of butter on each oyster.

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. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 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
Are the main food, cooked quickly over high heat so they firm up and stay tender.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor, and when browned gives the sauce a nutty taste.
Flour
Thickens the butter and juice into a smooth sauce as it cooks together.
Oyster juice
Provides the briny, savory base of the sauce.
Milk or cream
Adds body and creaminess, mellowing the sauce.

The step that matters

Broil the oysters quickly until cooked through. Oysters turn tough and rubbery when overcooked. A short, very hot broil cooks the outside and warms the inside just until opaque, keeping them tender and juicy.

Swap the clove

The recipe marks clove as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, pepper, butter, flour, milk):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, pepper, butter, flour, milk. 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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