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Oysters in Scallop-shells

Oysters baked in scallop shells with butter, parsley, shallot, pepper, flour, oyster liquor, gravy, lemon juice, bread crumbs, and butter topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Oysters in Scallop-shells

Oven, in the book's wordsA very quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the sauce

  1. Keep the oysters in their liquor.

  2. In a stewpan, melt the butter and add the minced parsley, shallot, and pepper; brown them.

  3. Dust in the flour, then add the strained oyster liquor and gravy; stir until it thickens to a sauce.

Fill and bake

  1. Add the oysters and lemon juice, then fill the scallop shells with the mixture.

  2. Sprinkle grated bread crumbs on top and add small pieces of butter.

  3. Place in a very hot oven (400°F / 200°C) and bake until golden brown.

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 + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

  4. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  5. Shallot + lemontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,523 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Provide the main seafood body and briny flavour of the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the parsley and shallot brown in the pan.
Flour
Thickens the oyster liquor and gravy into a smooth sauce.
Oyster liquor
Adds concentrated oyster flavour and liquid to the sauce.
Bread crumbs
Forms a crisp, golden browned topping over the filling.

The step that matters

Stir the flour and liquid until thickened. Flour must be cooked while stirring into the liquid so it swells and thickens smoothly; lumps or undercooked flour leave the sauce pasty and dull in taste.

“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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