Name: Macaroni and Oysters
Ingredients: 1 pint macaroni; 1 pint milk; 1/2 pint raw oysters; 1 slice bacon, finely chopped; coarse sea salt, to taste; cayenne pepper, to taste

Why it works: Milk and oyster are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,933 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Macaroni and Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the macaroni in boiling water for 20 minutes.
Drain the water and add the milk; cook until the milk is absorbed.
Butter a baking dish and layer in 1/3 of the macaroni.
Add 1/2 pint of raw oysters and the chopped bacon.
Season with a little coarse sea salt and cayenne pepper.

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.

Milk + oystertop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,933 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Milk + peppertop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together26,984 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Oyster + peppertop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together7,663 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).