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Scalloped Oysters a LA Reine

Scalloped oysters à la reine are oysters baked in a rich white sauce, topped with fried breadcrumbs and clarified butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Scalloped Oysters a LA Reine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oysters

  1. Remove gills from oysters and rinse them in their own strained liquor.

Make the sauce

  1. Mix the oysters with the rich white sauce.

  2. If needed, thicken the sauce with flour mixed with butter or arrow-root.

  3. Simmer the oysters in the sauce for 3 to 4 minutes.

Fill and brown

  1. Place the oysters back into their shells.

  2. Cover the tops with fried bread crumbs or a layer of fine crumbs.

  3. Pour clarified butter over the crumbs and brown them using a salamander.

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. Flour + buttertop 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 + saucetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Flour and butter 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 flavour and tender, briny texture once gently simmered.
Rich white sauce
Carries the oysters and gives the dish a creamy, moist body.
Flour
Thickens the sauce so it clings to the oysters rather than running thin.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp topping that protects the oysters and browns in the heat.
Clarified butter
Adds richness and helps the crumb topping brown evenly and crisp.

The step that matters

Simmering the oysters. Oysters toughen and shrink when overcooked. A brief simmer of 3 to 4 minutes is enough to warm them through and firm them slightly while keeping them 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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