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Oyster Cocktails

A chilled appetizer of oysters served with a tomato-based sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Ketchup and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,099 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Oyster Cocktails

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Drain the oysters and remove them from their liquor.

  2. Strain the required amount of oyster liquor.

Make the cocktail

  1. In a bowl, combine the tomato ketchup, pepper vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, Tabasco sauce, and oyster liquor.

  2. Mix well and serve chilled with the oysters.

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.

  1. Ketchup + saucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Tomato + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Provide the main body and briny flavor of the cocktail.
Tomato ketchup
Adds sweetness, body and a rich tomato base to the sauce.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances the sweetness.
Oyster liquor
Adds saline, oceanic flavor and extra liquid to the sauce.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, tomato, ketchup, pepper, vinegar, sauce):

  1. Limefits about as well
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Avocadofits less well
  4. Grapefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, tomato, ketchup, pepper, vinegar, sauce. 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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