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Escaloped Oysters

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Oyster and butter match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 8,175 recipes mention both. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat, shellfish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

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

  2. Remove the gills from the oysters and place them in a baking dish.

  3. Melt butter and mix with breadcrumbs, salt, and pepper.

  4. Sprinkle the breadcrumb mixture over the oysters.

  5. Top with grated Parmesan cheese.

  6. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Oyster + buttertop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together8,175 recipes

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

  2. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4,158 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Pepper + parmesan cheesetop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together5,322 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  4. Oyster + parmesan cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together111 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Butter + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together85,512 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

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