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Scalloped Oysters

Scalloped oysters baked with bread crumbs, butter, milk, and oyster liquid.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter 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 ↓

Scalloped Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Butter a shallow baking dish.

Layer the dish

  1. Layer half of the oysters in the dish, sprinkle with salt and pepper.

  2. Add a layer of bread crumbs and dot with butter.

  3. Repeat layers until the dish is full, finishing with bread crumbs and butter on top.

  4. Pour the milk and oyster liquid over the entire dish.

Bake and brown

  1. Cover the dish and bake for about 30 minutes.

  2. Remove the cover, place on the grate, and brown the top.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

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

  5. Oyster + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,545 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 ingredient and briny flavor that defines the dish.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and form a soft, set structure between the oyster layers.
Milk
Adds moisture and creates a creamy, custard-like sauce as it bakes.
Oyster liquid
Adds moisture and concentrated oyster flavor to the sauce.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the top brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Browning the top under the cover-free bake. Removing the cover lets surface moisture evaporate and the top brown. Leaving it covered too long leaves the crumbs pale and the dish soggy.

“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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