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Scalloped Oysters

Scalloped oysters are baked with bread crumbs, egg, butter, and seasonings.

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

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Drain the oysters and season with coarse sea salt and cayenne pepper.

  2. In a bowl, combine stale bread crumbs, salt, and black pepper, then add the chopped hard boiled egg to the bread crumb mixture.

Assemble and bake

  1. Butter a deep dish and layer the egg and crumbs, then add a layer of oysters with lumps of butter.

  2. Repeat layers until all ingredients are used, finishing with a layer of crumbs on top.

  3. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until hot and golden.

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

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

  3. Oyster + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,545 recipes

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

  4. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Oyster + eggtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,103 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 flavour and the tender, briny filling of the dish.
Stale bread crumbs
Absorb liquid from the oysters and butter, giving the layers body and a crisp, golden top.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and helps the top brown in the oven.
Hard boiled egg
Adds richness and body to the crumb layers.

The step that matters

Layering and baking until golden. Finishing with a layer of crumbs and baking until hot and golden lets the oysters cook through without drying out, while the top browns. Oysters overcook quickly and turn rubbery, so watch them closely.

“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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