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Oyster Pickles

Pickled oysters preserved in a spiced vinegar brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Oyster Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pickle

  1. In a pot, combine the liquor, black pepper, red pepper, mace, coarse sea salt, cloves, and vinegar.

  2. Add the oysters and simmer gently for a few minutes.

  3. Remove the oysters and place them in small jars.

Pickle and store

  1. Boil the pickling liquid, skim it, and pour it over the oysters in the jars.

  2. Store the jars in a dark, cool place.

  3. Once opened, use the contents quickly; they will keep for four to five weeks.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  4. Clove + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,386 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

Pepper and mace barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 simmered and then preserved in the spiced pickling liquid.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that flavours the liquid and helps preserve the oysters.
Liquor
Forms the liquid base of the pickle that carries the spices.

The step that matters

Simmering the oysters gently for a few minutes. Gentle simmering cooks the oysters just enough without toughening them. Boiling vigorously makes the oyster flesh firm and rubbery and can break it apart.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

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