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Oysters on Toast

Oysters served on toasted bread topped with ham, butter, salt, cayenne pepper, and fried parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 on Toast

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Toast thin slices of white or brown bread and cut out 12 rounds, 2 inches in diameter.

  2. Cover each round with a corresponding size of ham.

Top and bake

  1. Place an oyster on top of each ham round, and season with a little coarse sea salt and a pinch of cayenne pepper.

  2. Add a small piece of butter on top of each.

  3. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 3 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve on a folded napkin or dish paper, garnished with fried parsley.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

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

  5. Oyster + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,545 recipes

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

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 the soft, briny centre of each bite.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture as it melts over the oysters in the oven.
Cooked ham
Adds savoury, salty flavour and a firm layer between the bread and oyster.
White or brown bread
Forms a crisp toasted base that holds the topping.

The step that matters

Baking for only about 3 minutes. Oysters cook quickly and turn rubbery and dry if overheated. A short bake in a hot oven heats the oyster through while keeping it tender and juicy.

“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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