Skip to main content
Main

Kebobbed Oysters

Baked oysters coated in breadcrumbs, eggs, parsley, celery, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Parsley and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Kebobbed 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. Drain the oysters.

  2. Chop the parsley and celery.

  3. Beat the eggs and mix in the oyster liquid.

  4. Place the bread crumbs on a board and have a baking dish ready.

Assemble

  1. Lift the oysters by the muscular part, dip them in the egg, then dip them in the bread crumbs.

  2. Place them in the baking dish.

  3. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, parsley, and celery.

  4. Layer more oysters on top.

  5. Cut small pieces of butter over the top.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 15-20 minutes.

  2. Serve in 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. Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  4. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Form the main body of the dish and provide its briny, savoury flavour.
Eggs
Bind the bread crumbs to the oysters and help form a set coating when baked.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp coating that browns in the oven and absorbs moisture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the top brown as it bakes.
Celery
Adds a fresh, mildly vegetal aroma and light crunch to the filling.

The step that matters

Dipping the oysters in egg and crumbs. Oysters hold a lot of moisture. If they are not drained well and evenly coated, the crumbs turn soggy and the egg may not set into a firm coating in the oven.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, parsley, egg, bread, pepper, butter. 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.

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesCream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesBread OmeletteBread Omelette60 recipes