Why it works: Ketchup and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,099 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Oyster Cocktail
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Drain the oysters and remove their liquor.
Strain the oyster liquid.
Make the cocktail
In a bowl, mix the tomato ketchup, pepper, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, Tabasco sauce, and oyster liquid.
Chill the mixture for at least 30 minutes before serving.
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.
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Ketchup + saucetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,099 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,923 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tomato + lemontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,592 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,814 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
- Provide the main seafood flavour and the tender body of the cocktail.
- Tomato ketchup
- Adds sweetness, body and the red colour of the sauce.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour of the sauce.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity and brightness that balances the sweetness of the ketchup.
- Worcestershire sauce
- Adds savoury depth from fermented and aged ingredients.
The step that matters
Chill the mixture for at least 30 minutes. Chilling lets the flavours of the acid, spices and liquor blend together and keeps the oysters cold and food-safe before serving.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, tomato, ketchup, pepper, vinegar, sauce):
- Limefits about as well
- Lemonthe original
- Avocadofits less well
- Grapefits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, tomato, ketchup, pepper, vinegar, sauce. 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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