Name: Oyster Sauce
Ingredients: 1 hen lobster with coral; ⅔ cup good cream; ⅓ cup fresh butter

Why it works: Lobster and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,050 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Oyster Sauce

Ingredients

1 hen lobster with coral
⅔ cup good cream
⅓ cup fresh butter

Directions

Cut the lobster flesh into small pieces.
Mix the lobster with the cream and butter.
Do not add stock, fish sauces, anchovies, or essences.

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.

Lobster + creamtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,050 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Lobster + buttertop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,609 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster with coral: Provides the main seafood flavour and tender protein; the coral adds richness and colour.
Cream: Adds body and a smooth, rich texture when mixed with the lobster.
Butter: Adds fat for richness and a silky mouthfeel.

“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.