Why it works: Oyster and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,103 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Aspic of Oysters
Ingredients
Directions
Scald the oysters in seasoned vinegar and oyster liquor.
Prepare green aspic jelly by boiling green celery leaves, draining, pounding, mixing with clear aspic, and straining.
Cool the green jelly in small flat dishes to form a base for the oysters.
Boil eggs hard and chop the yolks for decoration.
Place four oysters diagonally side by side in each small flat dish and pour enough clear white or amber jelly over them.
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.
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Oyster + eggtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,103 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Vinegar + celerytop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,627 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Oyster + celerytop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,131 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
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Oyster + vinegartop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,024 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Vinegar + eggtop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,922 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Vinegar and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,922 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
Swap the celery
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, vinegar, egg):
- Tarragonfits better
- Dillfits better
- Capersfits better
- Celerythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, vinegar, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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