Name: Oyster Cocktail
Ingredients: 8 raw oysters; 2 drops Tabasco sauce; 1 tablespoon catsup; 1 teaspoon chopped celery; ½ tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice; ½ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce; ¼ teaspoon salt

Why it works: Oyster and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,233 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Oyster Cocktail

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Remove the gills from the oysters and place them in a bowl.
Add Tabasco sauce, catsup, chopped celery, vinegar or lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, and salt.
Mix the ingredients well and chill thoroughly.

Serve

Serve in cocktail glasses.

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.

Oyster + saucetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,233 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Celery + vinegartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,627 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Oyster + celerytop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,131 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Sauce + celerytop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,360 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,844 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters: Provide the main body and briny flavor of the cocktail.
Catsup: Adds sweetness and body to the tangy sauce.
Vinegar or lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances the sweetness.