Name: Oyster Cocktail
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons California oysters; 3 tablespoons tomato catsup; 1 tablespoon lemon or lime juice; ¼ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce; a pinch of salt; 1-2 dashes of Tabasco sauce

Why it works: Tomato and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,592 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Oyster Cocktail

Ingredients

2 tablespoons California oysters
3 tablespoons tomato catsup
1 tablespoon lemon or lime juice
¼ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
a pinch of salt
1-2 dashes of Tabasco sauce

Directions

Prepare

Chill all ingredients.
Mix the catsup, lime juice, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and Tabasco sauce together.

Serve

Place the oysters in a glass and pour the sauce over them.
Serve in punch or champagne glasses.

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.

Tomato + lemontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,592 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Oyster + saucetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,233 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Tomato + saucetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,469 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Oyster + tomatotop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together534 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Oyster + lemontop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,942 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters: Provide the main seafood body and briny flavor of the cocktail.
Tomato catsup: Supplies sweetness, acidity and body to the sauce that coats the oysters.
Lemon or lime juice: Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances the sweetness of the catsup.