Name: Broiled Ham and Oysters, Creole Style
Ingredients: thinly sliced boiled ham; ham fat (from fried ham); oysters; white sauce

Why it works: Ham and oyster work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 360 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Broiled Ham and Oysters, Creole Style

Ingredients

thinly sliced boiled ham
ham fat (from fried ham)
oysters
white sauce

Directions

Prepare

Fry the thinly sliced boiled ham until crispy.
Set the fried ham in a warm place.
Prepare the white sauce using the ham fat instead of butter.

Plate and serve

Place the ham around the edge of a warm meat platter.
Pour the prepared oysters in the center of the platter.

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.

Ham + oystertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together360 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Oyster + saucetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,233 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ham + saucetop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,314 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters: Form the main seafood element, contributing their briny flavor to the platter.
Boiled ham: Frying crisps the ham and adds salty, savory contrast to the soft oysters.
Ham fat: Replaces butter in the sauce, adding savory, smoky fat flavor.
White sauce: Provides a creamy, moist coating that binds the dish together.

“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.