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Oyster Salad

A chilled salad of oysters, cabbage, celery, egg yolks, oil, vinegar, mustard, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Oyster Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oysters

  1. Boil the oysters once, then drain and cool them.

  2. Cut the oysters in halves between the thick and thin parts.

  3. Cover the oysters with vinegar and let them sit overnight.

  4. Chop the cabbage and celery, then mix them with the oysters.

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, rub together the raw and hard-boiled egg yolks until smooth.

  2. Gradually add the oil, mixing well after each addition.

  3. Stir in the salt, pepper, mustard, and vinegar gradually.

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. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  4. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Cabbage + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,840 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Form the main body of the salad and carry its briny flavor.
Raw egg yolks
Emulsify with the oil to give the dressing a smooth, thick body.
Hard-boiled egg yolks
Add body and richness to the dressing, helping it hold together.
Oil
Provides fat that, emulsified with the yolks, makes the dressing creamy.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and firms the oysters as they sit.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and a fresh, slightly sharp bite.

The step that matters

Add the oil gradually. Oil must be added slowly while mixing so the yolks can emulsify it. Adding it too fast can cause the dressing to separate and turn thin and greasy.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, vinegar, celery, egg, pepper, mustard):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Cucumberfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, vinegar, celery, egg, pepper, mustard. 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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