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Scalloped Oysters

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

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 the dish

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Butter a baking dish and cover the bottom with bread crumbs.

Layer the oysters

  1. Wet the crumbs with cream and season with pepper and salt.

  2. Add small pieces of butter.

  3. Layer the oysters on top with a little of their liquor.

  4. Season with pepper and add more butter pieces.

  5. Cover with dry bread crumbs.

  6. Top with additional butter.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake until the juices bubble to the top.

  2. Brown under the broiler for a few moments.

  3. Serve directly from the baking dish.

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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  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 + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 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 filling, releasing savory juices that moisten the dish as they cook.
Dry bread crumbs
Absorb the cream and butter, forming a soft layer with a lightly crisp, browned top.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavor and helps the top brown.
Cream
Moistens the crumbs and gives a rich, smooth body to the filling.

The step that matters

Brown under the broiler for a few moments. The broiler browns quickly, so the top can scorch while the oysters stay underdone if the dish is left too long or placed too close to the heat. Watch it closely and remove it as soon as the crumbs turn golden.

“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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