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Deviled Oysters

Deviled oysters are baked oysters mixed with mustard, Worcestershire sauce, butter, and eggs, served hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Deviled Oysters

Why it works: Mustard and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,430 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Deviled Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, combine chopped oysters, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, pepper, salt, and butter.

  2. Add the oyster liquor and mix in enough cracker dust to thicken the mixture.

  3. Bind the mixture with the beaten eggs.

Bake and serve

  1. Spoon the mixture onto the oyster half shells.

  2. Bake until nicely browned and serve hot.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

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

  3. Mustard + saucetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,120 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  5. Oyster + saucetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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 and a briny, savoury flavour in the filling.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set when baked, holding the filling together.
Cracker dust
Absorbs liquid and thickens the mixture so it holds its shape on the shells.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the filling brown in the oven.
Prepared mustard
Adds sharpness that balances the richness of the butter and oysters.

The step that matters

Thickening the mixture with cracker dust. Oysters release liquor as they sit and heat. If the mixture is too wet, it will run off the shells and bake unevenly. Adding cracker dust before the eggs lets it absorb excess liquid so the filling holds its shape and sets properly.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, sauce, pepper, butter, egg. 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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