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Scalloped Oysters

Scalloped oysters are baked oysters topped with a crumb and butter mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

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

  2. Season the drained oysters with salt and cayenne pepper.

  3. In a bowl, mix the stale bread crumbs with salt and black pepper. Add the chopped hard boiled egg to the bread crumbs and mix well.

  4. Butter a deep dish.

Layer and bake

  1. Layer half of the egg and crumb mixture in the bottom.

  2. Add a layer of oysters on top. Dot with butter.

  3. Add more crumbs.

  4. Repeat the layers until all ingredients are used.

  5. Finish with a layer of crumbs on top.

  6. Bake in the preheated oven until golden. Serve hot.

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

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

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

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

  4. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Oyster + eggtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,103 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 flavor and tender, briny filling between the crumb layers.
Stale bread crumbs
Form the body of the dish and soak up moisture from the oysters.
Hard boiled egg
Adds richness and a soft, binding texture to the crumb mixture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the top turn golden in the oven.

The step that matters

Bake in the preheated oven until golden. Oysters are delicate and overcooking them makes them tough and shrunken, while underbaking leaves the crumbs pale and the filling wet. Watching for a golden top gives a good balance.

“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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