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Scalloped Oysters

Scalloped oysters are baked oysters layered with a crumb topping and a custard-like sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Scalloped Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the dish

  1. Crush and roll several handfuls of Boston crackers.

  2. Put a layer of crumbs in a buttered pudding dish.

Layer and bake

  1. Wet the crumbs with a mixture of slightly warmed oyster liquor and milk.

  2. Add a layer of oysters sprinkled with coarse sea salt, black pepper, and small bits of butter.

  3. Repeat layers of moistened crumbs and oysters until the dish is full.

  4. Finish with a top layer of crumbs.

  5. Beat an egg into the milk and pour it over the top layer.

  6. Dot with bits of butter and bake at 350°F (175°C) for half an hour.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  3. Oyster + eggtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,103 recipes

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

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 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 tender, briny body of the dish.
Boston crackers
Form the crumb layers that soak up liquid and give the dish its structure.
Egg
Helps the custard-like liquid set, binding the layers as the dish bakes.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, softening the crumbs and forming a creamy base.
Butter
Adds fat and richness and helps the top brown as it bakes.

The step that matters

Wetting the crumbs with oyster liquor and milk. Crumbs need enough liquid to soften without turning soggy. Too little leaves dry, gritty layers, while too much makes the dish watery and stops the egg custard from setting properly.

“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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