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To Pickle Oysters

This is a method for pickling oysters using salt, mace, pepper, and orange peel.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Jacqueline Harrison Smith (ed.) · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,402 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

To Pickle Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Open large oysters and wash them, then put them in a saucepan to boil in clear water with a very little salt.

  2. When they are sufficiently boiled, take out the oysters and put them in cold water to whiten them.

Pickle and seal

  1. Then add to the liquor they were boiled in a little more water and salt, some blades of mace, whole pepper, and orange peel, then boil them a little.

  2. Lay your oysters with their spices in a gallipot.

  3. When the liquor is cold, pour it over them, and tie them down close with white paper.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

68Calories
1 gProtein
0 gFat
16 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
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Orange1 medium (131g)62
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Macenot in our table0

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

By Jacqueline Harrison Smith (ed.). Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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.

  1. Pepper + orangetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,402 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  2. Mace + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Mace + orangetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,043 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

Mace and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters (in the method)
Firm flesh that holds its shape and absorbs the flavour of the pickling liquor.
Mace
Adds a warm, aromatic flavour to the pickling liquor.
Pepper
Adds a sharp, aromatic note that flavours the liquor and oysters.
Orange peel
Adds citrus aroma and a light bright flavour to the pickle.

The step that matters

Let the liquor cool before pouring it over the oysters. Hot liquid would keep cooking the oysters, which toughens their protein and makes them shrink and turn rubbery. Cooling the liquor first keeps them tender.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, orange):

  1. Rosemaryfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, orange. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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