Skip to main content
Main

Oysters

Scalloped oysters are baked oysters in a butter‑flour sauce topped with breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oysters

  1. Scald the oysters in their own liquor.

  2. Remove the gills from the oysters.

  3. Strain the liquor to remove grit.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt 1 ounce of butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add enough flour to absorb the butter.

  3. Pour in the strained oyster liquor and cream or milk.

  4. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  5. Add the oysters to the sauce.

  6. Season with pepper and salt.

  7. Heat gently without boiling.

Assemble and serve

  1. Butter the scallop shells.

  2. Fill the shells with the oysters and liquid.

  3. Top the shells with breadcrumbs.

  4. Drizzle with oiled butter.

  5. Brown in the oven or under a broiler.

  6. 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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  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 once gently cooked.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and helps form the base of the sauce.
Flour
Absorbs the melted butter and thickens the liquor and cream into a sauce.
Cream or milk
Adds moisture and richness, giving the sauce a smooth, creamy body.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp topping that browns under the oven or broiler.

The step that matters

Heat gently without boiling. Once the oysters are added, boiling toughens their proteins and makes them shrink and taste rubbery. Gentle heat keeps them tender while the sauce warms through.

“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.

You might also like

Mock Oyster SoupMock Oyster Soup21 recipesCorn FrittersCorn Fritters6 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipes