Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Oyster Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Melt the butter in a saucepan.
Add the flour and beat together until smooth.
Cook the oysters in their own liquor until they boil.
Skim out the oysters and add enough water to the liquor to make 1 pint.
Combine the liquid with the butter and flour mixture and cook until it thickens.
Add the oysters back in and season with pepper and cayenne.
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.
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Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + oystertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,184 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Lemon + flourtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,404 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Butter
- Enriches the sauce and carries flavour, giving it a rich mouthfeel.
- Flour
- Thickens the liquid into a smooth sauce as it cooks with the butter.
- Oysters
- Provide the main savoury flavour of the sauce.
The step that matters
Combine the liquid with the butter and flour mixture and cook until it thickens. Flour thickens only when the roux-liquid mixture is cooked and stirred long enough for starch granules to swell. Stopping early leaves the sauce thin, while adding the liquid cold or too fast can cause lumps.
“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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