Name: Oyster Soup
Ingredients: 1 teaspoonful onion; 1 tablespoonful of flour; 1/4 teaspoonful of cloves; 1/2 gal; 3 lbs; salt; pepper

Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 17,451 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Oyster Soup

Ingredients

Directions

MARIANA EMORY ROBINSON, “WAVERLY-ON-CHESTER,” EASTERN SHORE OF MARYLAND.
_Contributed by Sally Robinson Hance, Mrs. Anthony M. Hance, Philadelphia, Pa._
½ gal. oysters (well drained), ½ gal. fresh milk, 1 teaspoonful onion (chopped very fine), ¼ lb. butter rolled in 1 tablespoonful of flour, salt and red pepper to taste. Put the milk on and let it get very hot, then put in the butter and flour and let the milk boil, keep stirring all the time, and then put in the oysters. As soon as they curl up they are done. Add the salt later and stir continually after the milk gets hot.
GINGERBREAD.
MRS. F. VON A. CABEEN.
_Contributed by Sarah Biddle Cabeen, Philadelphia, Pa._
3 oz. ginger, ¼ teaspoonful of cloves, cinnamon and allspice, ¾ lb. brown sugar, 1 lb. butter, 1 qt. molasses, 3 lbs. flour, rolled and baked.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together16,901 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
Flour + clovetop 15% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together12,671 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together32,460 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

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

Shallotbetter flavor fit
Arrowrootbetter flavor fit
Parsnipbetter flavor fit
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, clove, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).