Name: Oyster Toast
Ingredients: large oysters; 1 beaten egg; cracker or bread crumbs; toast; rich cream sauce; finely cut celery; salt; pepper; 1 teaspoon melted butter

Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Oyster Toast

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

Dip the oysters in the beaten egg, then coat with cracker or bread crumbs.
Cook the oysters on a wire gridiron over high heat.
Prepare the toast in advance and pour the rich cream sauce over it.
Sprinkle finely cut celery on top for added flavor.
Alternatively, wash oysters in the shell and place them on hot coals or a hot stove, or bake in a hot oven.
Open the shells with an oyster knife, ensuring to keep the liquor.
Quickly dip the toast in hot salted water, then place the oyster and liquor on top.
Season with salt and pepper, and add a teaspoon of melted butter over each.

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.

Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,787 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,184 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, egg, bread, cream, sauce, pepper, butter):

Nutmegfits better
Parsleyfits better
Capersfits better
Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, egg, bread, cream, sauce, pepper, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.