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Scalloped Oysters

Scalloped oysters are baked oysters topped with a butter, flour, oyster liquor, and milk sauce, seasoned with salt and cayenne.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Scalloped Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oysters

  1. Open the tin and drain the oysters.

  2. Place the oysters on a dish in the oven to heat through.

Make the sauce

  1. In a small saucepan, melt the butter.

  2. Mix in the flour to form a smooth paste.

  3. Gradually add the oyster liquor and milk, stirring until the sauce boils and thickens.

  4. Season with salt and cayenne, then strain over the oysters.

Serve

  1. Serve immediately with pepper, vinegar, and 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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 texture of the dish.
Butter
Enriches the sauce and carries flavour, and fat helps the flour form a smooth paste.
Flour
Thickens the sauce with starch as it cooks with the liquid.
Oyster liquor
Adds briny oyster flavour and liquid to the sauce.
Milk
Adds liquid and richness, giving the sauce a creamy body.

The step that matters

Gradually add the oyster liquor and milk, stirring until the sauce boils and thickens. Adding liquid slowly to the butter and flour paste keeps it smooth. Starch thickens only once the mixture boils, so stirring prevents lumps and scorching.

“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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