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Oysters with Parmesan Cheese

Oysters topped with butter, parsley, pepper, champagne, and Parmesan cheese, baked until browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Oysters with Parmesan Cheese

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Drain the oysters, removing as much liquor as possible.

  2. Spread butter thickly in a dish and lay the oysters on it.

Season and top

  1. Strew minced parsley over the oysters and season with pepper.

  2. Pour champagne over the oysters and cover with grated Parmesan cheese.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until nicely browned on top.

  2. Drain excess fat and serve hot in the same dish.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Champagne + parmesan cheesetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together20 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

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

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

  5. Pepper + parmesan cheesetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,322 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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, cooking gently in their own juices and butter.
Butter
Carries heat and adds richness, helping the oysters cook and the topping brown.
Parmesan cheese
Forms a savory crust that browns in the oven.
Champagne
Adds acidity and moisture that steams the oysters and balances the richness of the butter and cheese.

The step that matters

Bake until nicely browned. Oysters overcook quickly and turn rubbery, while the cheese needs enough dry oven heat to brown. Watch for a golden top and stop once the oysters are just firm.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, butter, pepper, champagne, parmesan cheese):

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Basilfits about as well
  4. Celeryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, butter, pepper, champagne, parmesan cheese. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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