Name: Oyster Cocktail
Ingredients: Oysters; ½ tablespoon Blue Point catsup; ½ tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice; 2 drops Tabasco sauce; ¼ teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce; 1 teaspoon finely chopped celery; Crushed ice; Green peppers (for serving)

Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Oyster Cocktail

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Remove the gills from the oysters and place them in cocktail glasses or hollowed-out green peppers.
In a bowl, mix the Blue Point catsup, vinegar or lemon juice, Tabasco sauce, salt, Worcestershire sauce, and chopped celery. Chill the mixture thoroughly.

Serve

Serve the oysters topped with the chilled mixture on a bed of crushed ice.

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.

Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Oyster + saucetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,233 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Vinegar + celerytop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,627 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Oyster + celerytop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,131 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters: Serve as the main ingredient, giving the dish its briny, delicate seafood flavour.
Blue point catsup: Provides sweetness and tomato body to the sauce.
Vinegar or lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances the oysters' richness.