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Oysters and Parmesan Cheese

Oysters baked with Parmesan cheese, parsley, breadcrumbs, Chablis, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter 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 ↓

Oysters and Parmesan Cheese

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Butter a fireproof china dish.

  2. Sprinkle it with browned bread crumbs.

  3. Lay the oysters on the bed of bread crumbs.

Top and bake

  1. Strew chopped parsley and grated Parmesan over the oysters.

  2. Add a few more crumbs.

  3. Pour in the Chablis.

  4. Pour a little warm butter over the oysters.

  5. Place the dish in the oven.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Parmesan cheese + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  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. Parmesan cheese + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together577 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Provide the main ingredient, which cooks gently in the dish and turns tender.
Parmesan cheese
Melts and browns on top, adding savoury flavour and a golden crust.
Browned bread crumbs
Form a base and topping that add texture and absorb some of the liquid.
Chablis
Adds moisture and acidity, steaming the oysters as it cooks.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the top brown evenly.

The step that matters

Pour in the Chablis before baking. The wine supplies the liquid that gently steams the oysters. Adding it at the right point keeps them moist and tender rather than dry or rubbery from overcooking.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, parmesan cheese, bread, butter):

  1. Capersfits about as well
  2. Pepperfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Celeryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, parmesan cheese, bread, butter. 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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