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Oyster Cocktail

A chilled oyster cocktail with tomato ketchup, vinegar, Tabasco, celery, and Worcestershire sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,377 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Oyster Cocktail

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Shuck the oysters and place them in a bowl.

  2. Add tomato ketchup, vinegar or lemon juice, Tabasco sauce, salt, celery, and Worcestershire sauce.

  3. Mix the ingredients well and chill thoroughly.

  4. Serve in cocktail glasses or in green pepper cases 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.

  1. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Oyster + saucetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Tomato + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,469 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Tomato + vinegartop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,063 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Vinegar + celerytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,627 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Provide the main body and briny flavor of the cocktail.
Tomato catsup
Adds sweetness, acidity and body to the sauce that coats the oysters.
Vinegar or lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the sweetness of the catsup.
Worcestershire sauce
Adds savory depth and umami to the sauce.

The step that matters

Chill thoroughly. Cold keeps raw oysters firm and food-safe while the flavors meld, so the mixture should rest cold rather than be served at once.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, tomato, vinegar, sauce):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Garlicfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, tomato, vinegar, sauce. 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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