Name: Oyster Sauce
Ingredients: 1 pint white sauce; ½ teaspoon grated onion; 1 pint small oysters, washed; 1 teaspoon chopped celery

Why it works: Onion and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,518 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Oyster Sauce

Ingredients

1 pint white sauce
½ teaspoon grated onion
1 pint small oysters, washed
1 teaspoon chopped celery

Directions

Prepare the sauce

Prepare 1 pint of white sauce.
Add ½ teaspoon of grated onion to the sauce.

Cook and finish

In a separate pot, cook 1 pint of washed small oysters and 1 teaspoon of chopped celery for 10 minutes.
Chop the oysters and celery.
Add them to the white 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.

Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,518 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sauce + oystertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,233 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sauce + oniontop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together10,474 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,131 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Onion + oystertop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,920 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Sauce and onion barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,474 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

White sauce: Starch-thickened base that gives the oyster sauce its creamy body and holds the pieces together.
Small oysters: Supplies the main savory, briny flavor and the chopped meaty texture of the sauce.
Grated onion: Adds a sharp aromatic note that lightly brightens the rich white sauce.
Celery: Adds a mild, fresh aroma and small pieces of texture to the oyster mixture.