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Hot Oyster Cocktail

A hot cocktail of oysters served with a tomato-based sauce and toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lime match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,491 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Hot Oyster Cocktail

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, combine the strained tomatoes, salt, pepper, lime juice, and sugar.

  2. Cook until thick, or thicken with a little flour and water for 3 minutes before using.

Heat and serve

  1. Add the oysters and heat until very hot.

  2. Serve with a small round piece of toast on top of each serving.

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.

  1. Pepper + limetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,491 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Tomato + limetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,878 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Tomato + oystertop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together534 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + oystertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,663 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Form the cocktail's base, providing body, moisture and bright acidic flavor.
Oysters
Provide the main seafood ingredient, warmed through in the tomato sauce.
Flour (in the method)
Thickens the sauce when it is not reduced by cooking.
Lime juice
Adds acidity that brightens the tomato flavor.
Sugar
Balances the acidity of the tomatoes and lime juice.

The step that matters

Heating the oysters until very hot. Oysters cook quickly and can turn rubbery or tough if overheated. Heating them only until they are very hot, without boiling, keeps them tender while making sure the dish is served hot.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, lime, sugar, oyster):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Sweet potatofits better
  3. Cucumberfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, lime, sugar, oyster. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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.

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