Name: Pickled Oysters
Ingredients: 1 quart oyster liquor; ½ cup vinegar; 2 teaspoons whole cloves; Salt to taste; Pepper to taste; Salt water; Ice water

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

Pickled Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the oysters in their liquor until they begin to shrivel at the edges.
Transfer the oysters to a flat dish to cool.
Soak the oysters in a bowl of salt water for about 30 minutes to regain their plump shape.
In the meantime, add vinegar and cloves to the oyster liquor.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Pour the mixture over the drained oysters.
If the oysters are too salty, let them stand in ice water for a few minutes.

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.

Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Vinegar + clovetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,386 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Oyster + peppertop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together7,663 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Oyster + vinegartop 29% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,024 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).