Name: Oyster Gumbo
Ingredients: 50 oysters; 2 tablespoons melted butter; Okra Gumbo base (not specified in the passage)

Why it works: Oyster and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,184 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓

Oyster Gumbo

Ingredients

50 oysters
2 tablespoons melted butter
Okra Gumbo base (not specified in the passage)

Directions

Thoroughly dry the oysters.
Heat a hot frying pan and add melted butter.
Add the oysters to the pan and toss until slightly browned, which takes several minutes.

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 + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,184 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Oyster + okratop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together71 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Butter + okratop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together352 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).