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Oysters Broiled

Broiled oysters seasoned with butter, salt, cayenne, and lemon juice, served on a folded napkin with bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Oysters Broiled

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Open the oysters and leave them in their deep shells.

Cook and serve

  1. Place a little butter on each oyster, then sprinkle with salt, cayenne, and lemon juice.

  2. Put the shells on a grill over a medium fire and cook for 3 minutes.

  3. Serve neatly arranged on a folded napkin with brown bread and butter.

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 + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

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

  5. Oyster + peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,663 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
Are the main item, cooked gently in their shells so they stay juicy.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, helping the oysters stay tender as they heat.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich oyster and butter flavour.

The step that matters

Putting the shells on the grill. Oysters cook quickly and can turn rubbery or dry if overheated. Keeping them in their deep shells holds in their liquor and moisture while the heat sets the flesh.

“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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