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To Scallop Oysters

Oysters coated with butter, flour, and breadcrumbs, baked until browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

To Scallop Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oysters

  1. Open the oysters and place them with their liquor in a stewpan.

  2. Heat the stewpan for 5 minutes.

  3. Remove the oysters and their gills.

  4. Strain the liquor.

Make the sauce

  1. Mix the strained liquor with 3 ounces of butter rolled in flour.

  2. Add the oysters.

  3. Heat for another 5 minutes.

Assemble and bake

  1. Butter a scallop shell.

  2. Sprinkle the shell with bread crumbs.

  3. Layer the oysters and bread crumbs in the shell.

  4. Add thin slices of butter between layers until filled.

  5. Cover with crumbs and slices of butter.

  6. Pour the liquor over the top.

  7. Brown in a Dutch oven.

  8. Serve.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (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 + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,545 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: hexanal (grass, 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 filling and their briny flavour as they heat through in the liquor.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and browns on top to give a golden crust.
Flour
Rolled into the butter to thicken the strained liquor into a light sauce.
Bread crumbs
Form the layers and topping, absorbing liquid and crisping as they brown.

The step that matters

Browning in the Dutch oven. Browning relies on the butter-coated crumbs drying and toasting on top. Too little heat leaves the dish pale and soggy, while too much can scorch the crumbs before the oysters are heated 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.

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