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Scalloped Oysters

Oysters baked in a creamy sauce with breadcrumbs and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the oysters

  1. Soak the oysters in their own liquor, then remove the gills and strain the liquor to remove grit.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, melt 1 ounce of butter, then add enough flour to absorb the butter.

  2. Stir in the white stock and cream, and bring to a boil.

  3. Add the oysters and season with pepper and salt; heat through without boiling.

Assemble and bake

  1. Butter scallop shells and fill them with the oyster mixture.

  2. Top with bread crumbs and drizzle with melted butter.

  3. Brown in a 400°F (200°C) oven or under a broiler, then serve immediately while 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.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Butter + oystertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

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

  4. Bread + oystertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,545 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 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 flavor and tender texture in the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor to the sauce and helps the crumbs brown.
Flour (in the method)
Absorbs the melted butter to form a base that thickens the sauce.
Cream
Adds richness and body, making the sauce smooth and creamy.
White stock
Adds savory depth to the sauce and thins it to a pourable consistency.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping when browned.

The step that matters

Heat the oysters through without boiling. Oysters toughen and shrink when overcooked, so they should be warmed just until heated through once added to the sauce.

“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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