Name: Oyster Pie
Ingredients: pieces of cooked bacon; oysters; cream sauce; ½ cup oyster crabs, seasoned; chopped celery; minced parsley; rich pie crust

Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Oyster Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Line the bottom of a casserole dish with pieces of cooked bacon.
Add a layer of oysters followed by cream sauce.
Sprinkle ½ cup of seasoned oyster crabs on top.
Add a layer of finely chopped celery and minced parsley.
Repeat with another layer of oysters and cream sauce.
Cover with a rich pie crust and bake at 400°F (200°C) until nicely browned.

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.

Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,810 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,787 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Cream + crabtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together317 recipes

Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).
Oyster + crabtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together95 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Sauce + crabtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together238 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, cream, sauce, crab, celery):

Capersfits better
Tarragonfits about as well
Nutmegfits about as well
Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, cream, sauce, crab, celery. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.