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Oysters and Bacon, Saute

A sautéed oyster and bacon dish served on toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Oysters and Bacon, Saute

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Butter the toast and keep it warm.

  2. Dry the oysters on a towel and sprinkle them lightly with cayenne.

  3. Slice the bacon very thin and cook it slowly in a heated skillet until brown.

  4. Transfer the bacon to a double boiler to keep warm.

Cook and serve

  1. Roll the oysters in flour and drop them into the hot fat in the skillet.

  2. Brown the oysters rapidly on each side.

  3. Place the oysters and bacon alternately on the slices of toast and 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.

  1. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Oyster + peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,663 recipes

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

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Main protein; browned quickly in flour to form a crisp, golden coating.
Bacon
Adds fat and salty, smoky flavor to the hot skillet and the finished dish.
Toast
Provides a crisp, absorbent base that holds the oysters and bacon.
Flour
Coats the oysters so they brown more evenly and develop a crisp surface.
Butter
Adds richness and browning flavor to the toast.

The step that matters

Brown the oysters rapidly on each side. Oysters cook very fast and turn tough and rubbery if overcooked. A short, hot sear browns the flour coating while keeping the inside tender.

“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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