Name: Oyster Cream
Ingredients: 1 quart milk; 1 pint solid meat oysters; Salt to taste; Pepper to taste; 1 teacup oyster crackers, rolled and sifted; 3 egg yolks, well beaten; Cold milk, enough to stir smooth; ½ cup butter; 3 egg whites, beaten to a stiff froth

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Oyster Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oysters

Bring the milk to a boil in a pot.
Add the oysters, salt, and pepper; stir gently until hot but do not boil.
Remove the oysters and place them in a hot earthen dish.

Make the cream

Mix the rolled oyster crackers with the egg yolks and enough cold milk to make a smooth mixture.
Stir the cracker mixture into the hot milk along with the butter and let it simmer.
Fold in the beaten egg whites.

Serve

Place three or four oysters in each cup and fill with the cream mixture.
Serve as a first course with a slice of bread.

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,184 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Oyster + eggtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,103 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,594 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Meat + oystertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together536 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Milk: Forms the base of the cream and carries the flavor of the dish.
Oysters: Provide the main flavor and texture of the dish.
Egg yolks: Thicken the cream and add richness as they set gently with heat.
Egg whites: Beaten to a stiff froth, they add lightness and airiness to the cream.
Oyster crackers: Absorb liquid and help thicken the cream into a smooth body.
Butter: Adds fat for richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel.