Skip to main content
Main

Oysters a LA Mode

Layered oysters with bacon, aspic jelly, eggs, anchovies, and garnish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Lemon and parsley 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 a LA Mode

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the seasoning and oysters

  1. Combine essence of anchovy, lemon juice, and cayenne pepper.

  2. Wrap each oyster half in a slice of bacon.

Fry and serve

  1. Skewer the wrapped oysters and fry until cooked.

  2. Serve each fried oyster on a fried crouton.

Make the aspic and layer the mold

  1. Prepare aspic jelly and have oysters ready.

  2. Layer jelly in a mold, then arrange whole oysters on top.

  3. Add another layer of jelly, then arrange half oysters, egg rings, anchovies, and chervil leaves.

  4. Continue layering until the mold is full, then chill until set.

Unmold and garnish

  1. Unmold and garnish with lemon slices, parsley, and crayfish.

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

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

  2. Chervil + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together774 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  4. Lemon + cherviltop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together358 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

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 flavor and tender texture when cooked and set in the jelly.
Bacon
Adds fat and savory flavor while it crisps around each oyster during frying.
Aspic jelly
Sets into a clear gel that holds the layers together and carries the dish's savory flavor.
Eggs
Add firm texture and mild richness to the layered mold as sliced rings.
Boned anchovies
Contribute salty, savory depth that complements the oysters and essence of anchovy.

The step that matters

Chill the mold until fully set before unmolding. Aspic is a gel that firms as it cools. If it is not fully set, the layers can slide or break when unmolded. Each layer must be firm before the next is added, so the oysters stay in place.

Swap the chervil

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (anchovy, lemon, pepper, oyster, egg, parsley, crayfish):

  1. Capersfits about as well
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Chervilthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against anchovy, lemon, pepper, oyster, egg, parsley, crayfish. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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.

You might also like

Lemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesMock Oyster SoupMock Oyster Soup21 recipesCorn FrittersCorn Fritters6 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipes