Name: Pigs in Blankets
Ingredients: large or medium-sized oysters; breakfast bacon; toothpicks; toast; watercress; poached eggs

Why it works: Oyster and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,103 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Pigs in Blankets

Ingredients

Directions

Wash and dry the oysters thoroughly.
Wrap each oyster in a thin slice of breakfast bacon and secure with a toothpick.
Broil the wrapped oysters until the bacon is crisp and brown.
Serve hot on toast, garnished with watercress and poached eggs.

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.

Oyster + eggtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,103 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Watercress + eggtop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together638 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Oyster + watercresstop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together62 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).