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Oysters, Ketchup of

A preserved oyster sauce made by boiling oysters with wine, anchovies, spices, and lemon, then bottling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,677 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Oysters, Ketchup of

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oysters

  1. Clean the oysters well, removing the eye and gut.

  2. Boil the oysters gently with their liquor until all goodness is drawn out.

  3. Strain the oysters and put the liquid into a clean saucepan.

Make the ketchup

  1. Add the light wine, anchovies, lemon juice, cloves, mace, and peppercorns.

  2. Boil for another 15 minutes.

  3. Place the shallots and lemon rind into a jar.

  4. Pour the hot liquid with spices over the shallots.

  5. When cold, bottle the ketchup and seal the corks.

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 + shallottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Lemon + shallottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,523 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Lemon + clovetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Wine + lemontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,157 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Give the ketchup its main savoury, briny flavour and body from their liquor.
Anchovies
Add deep savoury umami flavour that rounds out the sauce.
Light wine
Adds acidity and liquid, helping draw out and carry the spice flavours.
Shallots
Add mild sharpness and aroma as they steep in the hot liquid.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and helps keep the sauce fresh.

The step that matters

Boil the oysters gently with their liquor. Gentle heat draws out flavour without toughening the oysters or turning the liquor cloudy and bitter. Vigorous boiling can make the oysters rubbery and muddy the final sauce.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, wine, lemon, clove, shallot):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, wine, lemon, clove, shallot. 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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