Why it works: Bread and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,466 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓
Pigs in Blankets
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Dip each oyster into bread crumbs, then into beaten egg mixed with milk and seasoning.
Wrap each oyster in a rasher of bacon, securing with a toothpick.
Cook and serve
Fry in a hot pan until brown.
Serve hot on toast.
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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Bread + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Oyster + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,545 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Oyster + eggtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,103 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 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
- Bacon
- Wraps the oysters and renders fat that crisps and browns them in the pan.
- Oysters
- Provide the main filling that is enclosed by the bacon and crumb coating.
- Bread crumbs
- Form a crisp outer coating that browns during frying.
- Egg
- Binds the bread crumbs to the oysters so the coating holds during frying.
The step that matters
Frying in a hot pan until brown. A hot pan browns the bacon and crumb coating quickly and crisply, while the oyster inside cooks gently. A cool pan lets the bacon soften and fat soak into the coating instead of crisping it.
“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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