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Deviled Oysters

Deviled oysters are oysters mixed with a butter sauce and mashed egg yolks, seasoned with salt and cayenne, baked in paper cases.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Deviled Oysters

Why it works: Oyster and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,184 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓

Deviled Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oysters and sauce

  1. Scald the oysters in their own liquor and strain.

  2. Make a thick butter sauce using the oyster liquor instead of water.

  3. Mash the hard boiled yolks into the sauce, then add the oysters and season with salt and cayenne.

Fill and bake

  1. Butter paper cases and warm them in the oven.

  2. Fill the cases with the mixture and bake for five minutes.

  3. 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

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

  2. Oyster + eggtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,103 recipes

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

  3. Oyster + saucetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Provide the main flavour and the soft, briny filling.
Butter sauce
Forms a rich, thick base that binds the filling and adds moisture.
Hard boiled egg yolks
Thicken the sauce and add richness through their fat and emulsifying power.

The step that matters

Making the thick butter sauce. Butter must be emulsified into the liquid gradually so the sauce thickens smoothly and does not separate. If it breaks or runs thin, the filling will be greasy or loose and will not hold its shape in the cases.

“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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