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Broiled Oysters with Sauce

Broiled oysters served with a browned butter and flour sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Broiled Oysters with Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Drain the oysters and dry them with a cloth.

Make the sauce

  1. In a frying pan, melt the butter over medium heat until browned.

  2. Add the flour to the pan and mix well until browned.

  3. Pour in the oyster liquid and stir constantly until it boils.

  4. Season the sauce with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

Cook and serve

  1. Broil the oysters on a gridiron until cooked.

  2. Serve the broiled oysters on squares of buttered toast, topped with the sauce.

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 + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

  5. Oyster + peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,663 recipes

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

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Are the main ingredient, cooked by broiling to become tender and juicy.
Butter
Adds richness and, when browned, a nutty flavor to the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the butter and oyster liquid into a smooth sauce.
Oyster liquid
Provides the briny, savory flavor base for the sauce.

The step that matters

Stirring the sauce as it comes to a boil. Flour clumps and can scorch on the bottom of the pan if left unstirred, so constant stirring keeps the sauce smooth as the starch thickens it.

“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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