Name: Scalloped Oysters
Ingredients: 1 quart of oysters; 1 loaf of fresh bread, broken into crumbs; Coarse sea salt; Black pepper; Butter; 2 cups of rich milk; Fine cracker crumbs

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 moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Assemble

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Butter a deep dish and layer ½ inch of bread crumbs.
Add a thick layer of oysters, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and add bits of butter.
Repeat layers until the dish is full.
Pour 2 cups of milk over the layers.
Cover the last layer of oysters with fine cracker crumbs and add several bits of butter on top.

Bake and serve

Bake for 1 hour.
Serve immediately.

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,184 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Oyster + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,545 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 filling and their briny flavor, which sets the dish's character.
Bread crumbs: Soak up the milk and form the soft, layered body of the dish.
Milk: Moistens the crumbs and oysters and cooks into a creamy, custard-like sauce.
Butter: Adds richness and helps the top brown in the oven.
Fine cracker crumbs: Form a crisp, browned topping over the final layer.

“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.