Name: Oysters on Beef Cake
Ingredients: 1 dozen oysters; ¼ teaspoon salt; ¼ teaspoon pepper; 2 tablespoons butter (or 1 teaspoon beef jelly for a butter substitute); parsley for garnish; lemon slices for garnish

Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Oysters on Beef Cake

Ingredients

1 dozen oysters
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons butter (or 1 teaspoon beef jelly for a butter substitute)
parsley for garnish
lemon slices for garnish

Directions

Heat a pan until a drop of water hisses on it.
Add the oysters and stir until they boil.
Season with salt, pepper, and butter (or beef jelly).
Place the oysters on and around a beef cake.
Garnish with parsley and lemon slices.

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.

Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,184 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together28,563 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).