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Spiced Oysters

A preserved oyster dish flavored with vinegar, nutmeg, cloves, mace, allspice, salt, and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Spiced Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the gills from the oysters and place them with their liquor in a large earthen pitcher.

  2. Add the vinegar and all other ingredients to the oysters.

  3. Stir well and cover the pitcher.

Cook

  1. Heat over a slow fire, stirring occasionally.

  2. Once they boil completely, remove from heat to avoid overcooking.

Cool and chill

  1. Pour the oysters into a pan and let them cool completely.

  2. Refrigerate and do not eat until cold, preferably the next day.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Nutmeg + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Are the main ingredient, giving the dish its flesh and briny flavour.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and helps preserve the oysters.
Salt
Seasons the oysters and draws out flavour; amount depends on freshness.

The step that matters

Removing the pitcher from heat once the oysters boil. Oysters turn tough and rubbery when overcooked, so they should be taken off the heat as soon as they fully boil.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, vinegar, nutmeg, clove, allspice, pepper):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, vinegar, nutmeg, clove, allspice, pepper. 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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