Name: Pickled Oysters
Ingredients: large oysters; boiling water; cold water; fresh water; good vinegar; coarse sea salt; cloves; cinnamon

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 ↓

Pickled Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Drain the oysters and lay them in a pan.
Pour boiling water over the oysters and stir once or twice.
Rinse the oysters well in cold water.
Place the oysters in a kettle with fresh water and bring to a boil.
Remove the oysters and place them on a dish or clean towel.
In a pot, combine the oyster liquor, vinegar, salt, cloves, and cinnamon, and bring to a boil.
Add the oysters to the boiling mixture and let them cook for five minutes.
Serve the oysters when cold.

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.

Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Vinegar + clovetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,386 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Vinegar + cinnamontop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,187 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
Oyster + vinegartop 29% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,024 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Oyster + clovetop 29% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together696 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).