Name: Pickled Oysters
Ingredients: salt; mace; cloves; vinegar

Why it works: Mace and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,400 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓

Pickled Oysters

Ingredients

salt
mace
cloves
vinegar

Directions

Mrs. C. G. Smith. Wash them from their liquor and put them into a porce- lain lined kettle, with strong salt and water to cover them ; let them come to a boil, and then skim them into cold water; scald whole peppers, mace and cloves in a little vinegar ; the quantity of these must be determined by the number of oysters ; when the oysters are cold, put them into a stone jar with layers of spice between them, and make liquor enough to cover them from the liquor in which they were cooked; spice your vinegar and cold water to taste.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

10Calories

0 gProtein

0 gFat

2 gCarbs

Counts 3 of 4 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 3 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Clove	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Mace	not in our table	0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Home for the Friendless (Chicago, Ill.). 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. See the original page.

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.

Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,400 recipes

Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
Clove + vinegartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,386 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Mace + vinegartop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,415 recipes