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Canned Pickled Oysters

A pickled oyster recipe preserved in jars with vinegar and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Canned Pickled Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Poach the oysters

  1. Put oysters, including their liquor, into a porcelain kettle.

  2. Add salt to taste and heat slowly until the oysters are very hot but not boiling.

  3. Remove the oysters with a perforated skimmer and set aside to cool.

Pickle

  1. To the remaining liquor in the kettle, add the vinegar and spices.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Once the oysters are nearly cold, pour the hot mixture over them.

  4. Cover and store in a cool place.

Jar and store

  1. The next day, transfer them into glass jars with tight lids.

  2. If you open a jar, use the contents as soon as possible.

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. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. White wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. White wine + clovetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,715 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Are the main ingredient, cooked gently and then pickled in the spiced vinegar.
White wine vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves and sharpens the pickling liquid.
Black peppers
Add pungent aroma to the pickling liquid.
Cloves
Add warm aroma to the pickling liquid.
Mace
Adds a warm, delicate aroma to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Pouring the hot mixture over nearly cold oysters. Oysters must be nearly cold before the boiling pickling liquid is poured over them. Pouring it onto very hot oysters would overcook them and make them tough, while the timing keeps them tender and firm.

Flavor stand-ins for the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, white wine, vinegar, clove, pepper):

  1. Allspicebetter flavor fit
  2. Tarragonbetter flavor fit
  3. Thymebetter flavor fit
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, white wine, vinegar, clove, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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