Name: Broiled Oysters
Ingredients: large oysters; olive oil; fine cracker crumbs; buttered toast; lemon sauce

Why it works: Olive and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,922 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Broiled Oysters

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

Dip the oysters in olive oil.
Coat the oysters with fine cracker crumbs.
Broil the oysters on moderate heat for five minutes.
Serve the oysters on buttered toast with lemon sauce.

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.

Olive + lemontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,922 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Oyster + saucetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,233 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Oyster + olivetop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together709 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Olive + saucetop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,568 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Oyster + lemontop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,942 recipes

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