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Scalloped Oysters a LA Francaise

A dish of oysters coated in butter, parsley, pepper, and lemon juice, baked in shells.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Scalloped Oysters a LA Francaise

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Bring a pot of water to a boil and add the oysters, letting them bubble for a moment without boiling.

  2. Remove the oysters and roll them in melted butter, parsley, pepper, and lemon juice.

Assemble and cook

  1. Clean the deep oyster shells and arrange 3 to 4 oysters in each shell.

  2. Place the shells on a grill and cook until the liquor bubbles at the sides.

  3. Serve immediately.

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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Form the main body of the dish, and their own liquor bubbles and warms as they cook.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, coating the oysters so they stay tender on the grill.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter and the mild flavour of the oysters.
Parsley
Adds fresh, herbal aroma and a touch of colour to the butter coating.

The step that matters

Cook on the grill only until the liquor bubbles at the sides. Oysters toughen and shrink quickly when overheated. Heating just until the liquor bubbles gently keeps them tender and juicy rather than rubbery.

“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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