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Oysters in Shells or Ramquin Dishes

Baked oysters in shells topped with a buttered breadcrumb crust.

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

Oysters in Shells or Ramquin Dishes

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the filling

  1. Cook the oysters and prepare the sauce as for Creamed Oysters.

  2. Remove the sauce from heat, add the oysters and the beaten egg yolks.

Assemble and bake

  1. Butter the shells or dishes and fill them about two-thirds full with the mixture.

  2. To make buttered crumbs, melt 1 tablespoon of butter, add 2 tablespoons of crumbs, and stir until combined.

  3. Cover the top with buttered bread crumbs.

  4. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for five minutes, or until the crumbs are brown.

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. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Oyster + eggtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,103 recipes

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

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 body of the dish, cooked gently within the creamy sauce.
Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce and enrich the filling, giving it a smooth, set texture.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping that browns in the hot oven.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolks off the heat. Egg yolks thicken when heated but can scramble and turn grainy if the sauce is too hot. Removing the sauce from heat before adding them lets them thicken it smoothly.

“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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