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Broiled Oysters

Broiled oysters are oysters topped with butter and bread crumbs, broiled until plump and garnished with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread 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 ↓

Broiled Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove gills from oysters and dry them.

  2. Dip the oysters in melted butter.

  3. Cover the oysters with seasoned dry bread crumbs.

Broil and serve

  1. Place the oysters on a broiler rack and broil, turning often, until plump.

  2. Garnish with parsley before serving.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Oyster + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,545 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Bread + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,588 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Main ingredient; cooking firms and plumps the flesh while it stays moist inside.
Melted butter
Adds fat that carries flavor and helps the crumbs brown during broiling.
Seasoned dry bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that protects the oysters from drying in the heat.

The step that matters

Broil, turning often, until plump. Oysters cook quickly under high heat and turn tough and rubbery if overcooked. Turning exposes them evenly to heat so they plump and brown without drying out.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Capersfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Sagefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, 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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