Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Oyster Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Open the oysters and reserve all the liquor.
Boil the oysters in their liquor.
Remove the oysters and add 3-4 blades of mace to the liquor.
Stir in melted butter and thick cream or rich milk.
Return the oysters to the mixture and bring to a boil.
Remove from heat once boiling is complete.
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.
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,184 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Oyster + creamtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,886 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Mace + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,009 recipes
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Mace + buttertop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together11,405 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Mace and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,405 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, butter, cream):
- Nutmegfits better
- Capersfits about as well
- Celeryfits about as well
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, butter, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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