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Oysters a LA Mode

Oysters à la Mode is dish of oysters coated in parsley, lemon peel, nutmeg, cayenne, breadcrumb, egg yolk, and butter, served with bread and celery.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 a LA Mode

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Open the oysters and place them in a basin.

  2. Mix parsley, lemon peel, nutmeg, cayenne, and grated French roll in a bowl.

  3. Beat the yolks of the eggs in a separate bowl.

Coat and cook

  1. Dip each oyster into the egg yolks, then roll them in the breadcrumb mixture until fully coated.

  2. Melt the butter in a Dutch oven over a brisk fire.

  3. Arrange the oysters on the tray of the oven and cook until perfectly browned.

Serve

  1. Serve with thinly cut bread and butter, and a stick of celery.

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

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

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

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

  4. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Main ingredient, cooked briefly so the coating browns while the oyster stays tender.
Eggs
Egg yolks bind the breadcrumb coating so it adheres to each oyster.
French roll
Grated fine, it forms the breadcrumb coating that browns in the oven.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the coating brown and carrying flavour.
Parsley
Adds fresh, herbal aroma to the breadcrumb coating.

The step that matters

Arrange the oysters on the tray of the oven and cook until perfectly browned.. Oysters cook quickly and turn firm and rubbery if overheated. Watch the coating closely so it browns while the oyster stays moist inside.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Marjoramfits about as well
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, parsley, lemon, pepper, egg, butter, bread. 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.

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