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Broiled Oysters

Oysters seasoned with pepper and coarse sea salt, broiled and served with butter and bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Broiled Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and broil

  1. Dry the oysters with a napkin.

  2. Season the oysters with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  3. Broil the oysters on a fine wire broiler, turning frequently.

  4. Dip each oyster in melted butter.

  5. Roll each oyster in bread crumbs.

Plate

  1. Serve the oysters on a hot dish with additional butter on top.

Drain, broil and serve on toast

  1. Drain the oysters in a colander.

  2. Dip the oysters in melted butter.

  3. Place the oysters on a wire gridiron.

  4. Broil the oysters over a clear fire until browned on both sides.

  5. Season the oysters with salt, pepper, and plenty of butter.

  6. Lay the oysters on hot buttered toast moistened with a little hot water.

  7. Serve immediately.

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. 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. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + buttertop 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
Form the main body of the dish, becoming tender and juicy when briefly heated.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the surface brown while carrying flavor.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp coating that browns under the broiler and holds butter.
Hot buttered toast
Serves as a soft base that absorbs the oysters' juices and melted butter.

The step that matters

Broil the oysters over a clear fire until browned on both sides. Oysters cook quickly and turn tough and shrunken with prolonged heat, so they should be watched closely and turned while the surface browns.

“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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