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Oystek Jambalaya

A Cajun-style rice dish with oysters, bacon or ham, tomatoes, butter, salt, and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and rice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,065 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Oystek Jambalaya

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Heat the butter in a skillet.

  2. Add the tomatoes, salt, and bacon or ham. Cook for a few minutes.

  3. Add the oysters and cook for 10 minutes longer.

  4. Stir in the rice.

  5. Cover closely and set aside in a very warm place for about 30 minutes before serving.

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.

  1. Tomato + ricetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,065 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  5. Oyster + hamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together360 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Provide the main protein and briny flavor that defines the dish.
Bacon or ham
Adds smoky, savory fat that flavors the cooking pan.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and moisture that brighten the savory base.
Boiled rice
Absorbs the flavorful juices and bulks out the dish.

The step that matters

Add the oysters and cook for 10 minutes longer. Oysters turn tough and rubbery when overcooked, so they need only enough heat to firm and warm through. Watch them closely during this short cook.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, ham, butter, rice, pepper):

  1. Asparagusfits about as well
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, ham, butter, rice, pepper. 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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