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 on Toast
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the oysters
Drain the liquor from the oysters, cut each into four pieces, and drain again in a colander for 15 minutes.
Heat the liquor and strain it back into the sauce.
When it boils, reserve a small cupful and keep it hot.
Make the sauce
Stir the butter rolled in corn-starch into the remaining liquor on the range.
Heat the milk in another vessel.
Stir the oysters into the thickened liquor and season with pepper and salt.
Cook the oysters until scalding hot.
Add the milk and cook for 5 more minutes.
Serve
Line a hot platter with buttered, wet toast using the reserved liquor, and cover with the oysters.
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.
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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Corn + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,324 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
- Are the main ingredient, providing the flavour and texture of the dish.
- Butter
- Rolled in corn-starch, it enriches the sauce and adds richness.
- Corn-starch
- Thickens the oyster liquor into a smooth sauce.
- Milk
- Adds creaminess and mildness to the sauce.
The step that matters
Thickening the liquor with butter and corn-starch. Corn-starch must be stirred into hot liquor so its starch granules swell and gelatinize evenly; added to cold liquid or unevenly it forms lumps and the sauce stays thin or grainy.
“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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