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Oysters Au Gratin

Oysters au Gratin is baked oysters topped with butter, eggs, dressing, breadcrumbs, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 Au Gratin

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oysters

  1. Drain the oysters and lay them on a soft cloth. Cover with another cloth and pat to absorb moisture.

Layer and bake

  1. In a baking dish, layer oysters, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and add drawn butter.

  2. Repeat layers until all ingredients are used.

  3. Cover with fine breadcrumbs and dot with butter.

  4. Bake covered for 30 minutes, then uncover and 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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Butter + breadtop 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. Egg + breadtop 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 substance and briny flavour of the dish.
Drawn butter
Adds richness and moisture, helping the layers stay tender as they bake.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp topping that browns in the oven.
Eggs
Bind the mixture so it holds together when baked.

The step that matters

Patting the oysters dry. Surplus water from the oysters would dilute the butter and steam the topping instead of letting it brown, so the oysters must be thoroughly blotted first.

“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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