Name: Stewed Oysters
Ingredients: ½ pound butter; 1 pint oyster liquor; 2 tablespoons pepper vinegar; 1 teaspoon black pepper; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 pint milk; handful of crackers; 3 tablespoons fresh butter

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Stewed Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Melt the butter in a pan.
Add pepper, salt, and a small piece of cheese.
Once melted, add the oyster liquor and bring to a boil.
Strain the mixture and return it to the pan.
Add the oysters and boil for five minutes.
In a tureen, place a handful of crackers and three tablespoons of fresh butter.
Pour the milk into the oyster liquor, boil, and strain over the oysters.
Rinse the stew-pan and return the oysters and liquor to it.
Bring to a boil again and serve.

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + oystertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,184 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,933 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).