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Scalloped Vegetable Oysters

A baked dish of sliced vegetable oysters in a cream sauce with breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Oyster and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,886 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Scalloped Vegetable Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the oysters

  1. Boil the sliced vegetable oysters in water until very tender, about 20 minutes to 1 hour.

  2. Skim the oysters out of the boiling water.

Make the sauce

  1. Add thin cream and salt to the boiling water.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Thicken the mixture with flour rubbed smooth in a little cold cream.

Assemble and bake

  1. Layer the oysters in a pudding dish with breadcrumbs, finishing with a top layer of breadcrumbs.

  2. Pour the thickened sauce over the oysters and breadcrumbs.

  3. If needed, add more cream or milk to cover the dish well.

  4. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 30 minutes.

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. Oyster + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,886 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  2. Cream + flourtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  3. Oyster + flourtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,582 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (grass, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Vegetable oysters
Provide the main body and flavor of the dish once cooked until tender.
Thin cream
Adds richness and moisture, forming the base of the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the cream mixture so the sauce clings to the oysters.
Breadcrumbs
Add texture and help form a golden crust on top when baked.

The step that matters

Thickening the sauce with flour. Flour must be rubbed smooth in cold cream before it goes into the hot liquid. Added dry or lumpy, it forms clumps that do not dissolve, leaving the sauce grainy instead of smooth.

“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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