Name: To Broil Oysters
Ingredients: large oysters; butter; pepper; coarse sea salt; horseradish or lemon sauce

Why it works: Pepper and horseradish are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,646 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

To Broil Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Wash and wipe the oysters.
Brush the oysters with butter, pepper, and coarse sea salt.
Place the oysters in a pan and broil under a flame until they curl.
Serve with horseradish or lemon sauce.

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.

Pepper + horseradishtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,646 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,184 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Oyster + horseradishtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together282 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Oyster + peppertop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together7,663 recipes

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