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Tickled Oysters

Oysters marinated in a vinegar and spice mixture, chilled and served on parsley with stuffed olives.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Tickled Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pickle

  1. Bring the vinegar, chopped red pepper, salt, cloves, and cinnamon to a boil.

  2. Pour the boiling mixture over the oysters.

  3. Let the oysters cool.

  4. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Serve

  1. Serve the oysters in a glass dish on a bed of parsley, garnished with halved stuffed olives.

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 + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Parsley + olivetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,649 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Clove + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Main ingredient that is gently flavored by the hot pickling liquid as it cools.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that gives the oysters their tangy, pickled flavor.
Red pepper
Adds mild sweetness and color to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Pouring the boiling mixture over the oysters. Pouring boiling liquid over raw oysters partly cooks their edges and firms their texture, while the acid in the vinegar further changes the flesh. Letting the mixture boil fully before pouring ensures it is hot enough to start this change evenly.

Swap the cinnamon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, pepper, clove, oyster, parsley, olive):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Cinnamonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, pepper, clove, oyster, parsley, olive. 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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