Why it works: Oyster and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,184 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓
Angels on Horseback
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Lay an oyster on each slice of bacon.
Secure the bacon around the oyster.
Bake
Place the wrapped oysters in a well-buttered baking dish.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for six minutes.
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.
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Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,184 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Bacon
- Wraps the oysters and crisps as it cooks, adding salty, savoury fat and browning.
- Oysters
- The main filling; they cook quickly in the oven, turning tender and juicy inside the bacon.
- Butter
- Greases the dish so the wrapped oysters do not stick, and adds richness as it melts.
The step that matters
Securing the bacon around the oyster. Bacon that is loose or thick will not crisp evenly in a short bake, and the oyster may spill out or overcook before the bacon browns. Thin slices wrapped snugly fry and crisp together with the oyster.
“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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