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Oysters, Scalloped

Scalloped oysters baked with white sauce, lemon, breadcrumbs, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Oysters, Scalloped

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the oysters

  1. Blanch the oysters in their own liquor.

  2. Remove the gills.

  3. Cut the oysters in half.

Make the sauce

  1. Strain the liquor into the white sauce.

  2. Boil the sauce until reduced.

  3. Add lemon juice to taste.

  4. Add salt to taste.

  5. Add pepper to taste.

Assemble and bake

  1. Brush 8 or 9 small scallop shells with nearly cold clarified butter.

  2. Coat the shells with breadcrumbs.

  3. Distribute the oysters evenly in the shells.

  4. Add the prepared sauce to the shells.

  5. Cover lightly with breadcrumbs.

  6. Top each with 2 or 3 small pieces of butter.

  7. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until nicely browned.

  8. Serve hot.

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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

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

  3. Oyster + saucetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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, cooking gently in their own liquor to stay tender.
White sauce
Binds the oysters and keeps the filling moist during baking.
White breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden crust on top and around the shells.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the crumbs brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Bake until nicely browned. Oysters overcook quickly and turn rubbery, so bake only until the top is browned and the filling is 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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