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Oysters Scalloped in Ramekins

A baked dish of oysters topped with buttered breadcrumbs and oyster liquor or sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread 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 ↓

Oysters Scalloped in Ramekins

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. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Stir the butter into the bread and cracker crumbs.

Assemble

  1. Butter the ramekins and add a layer of the buttered crumbs.

  2. Place a layer of oysters on top and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

  3. Add a sprinkling of buttered crumbs and a tablespoon of oyster liquor or sherry.

  4. Add a second layer of oysters, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and cover with buttered crumbs.

Bake

  1. Bake for about 15 minutes, or until the crumbs are browned.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Butter + oystertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

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

  3. Bread + oystertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,545 recipes

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

  4. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

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

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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 and delicate briny flavor that the dish is built around.
Butter
Coats the crumbs so they brown evenly and add richness.
Bread crumbs
Form the soft layers that hold moisture and soak up the oyster liquor.
Cracker crumbs
Add structure and a toasty flavor to the crumb topping as it bakes.
Oyster liquor or sherry
Adds moisture and aromatic depth to the layers during baking.

The step that matters

Layering and covering the oysters. Covering the oysters completely with buttered crumbs protects them from drying out in the hot oven, while the crumbs brown. Seasoning each layer evenly keeps flavor distributed through the dish.

“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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