Name: Five Small Raw Oysters
Ingredients: 5 small raw oysters (in the deep shell); 1 lemon (quartered); cracked ice (if warm weather)

Why it works: Oyster and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,942 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Five Small Raw Oysters

Ingredients

5 small raw oysters (in the deep shell)
1 lemon (quartered)
cracked ice (if warm weather)

Directions

Place 5 small raw oysters on each plate, retaining the liquor.
If oysters are out of season, substitute with small round clams.
If the weather is warm, rest the oysters on a bed of cracked ice.
Add a quarter of a lemon to each plate.
Provide red pepper within reach if using clams.

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.

Oyster + lemontop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,942 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Oysters: Serve as the raw main element, with their own liquor providing moisture and brininess.
Lemon: Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the raw shellfish.

“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.