Name: Minced Oysters on Toast
Ingredients: 12 oysters (15 if small); 2 tablespoons butter; 2 egg yolks; ½ cup cream; salt; pepper

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Minced Oysters on Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Dry the oysters and mince them.
Melt the butter in a pan, then add the minced oysters, salt, and pepper.
Beat the egg yolks with the cream and stir into the oyster mixture.
If the mixture is not thick enough, thicken with a little flour and butter.
Serve the mixture very hot on toast.

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.

Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,184 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Oyster + eggtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,103 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Oyster + creamtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,886 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).