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Oyster Salad

A cabbage salad mixed with oysters, heavy cream, and butter, garnished with walnuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Oyster Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Make the slaw

  1. In a bowl, combine chopped cabbage, salt, pepper, and celery seed.

  2. Dilute vinegar with water, then mix in butter and sugar to taste.

  3. Stir in chopped eggs and a pinch of mustard.

  4. Pour the mixture over the cabbage and let it cool.

  5. Add heavy cream to the cooled cabbage mixture.

Cook the oysters and serve

  1. In a pan, melt butter and gently simmer the oysters until heated through.

  2. In a serving dish, layer the slaw and oysters.

  3. Garnish with chopped English walnuts.

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. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  5. Cabbage + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,840 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage
Forms the bulk of the slaw and gives it a crisp, crunchy texture.
Eggs
Add richness and body to the slaw dressing as they are blended in.
Heavy cream
Adds fat and creaminess, softening the sharpness of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that sharpens the flavour and balances the cream and butter.
Oysters
Provide the main seafood flavour and a tender, briny texture when gently heated.
Butter
Adds fat and a rich flavour to the dressing and to the oysters in the pan.

The step that matters

Gently simmer the oysters until heated through. Oysters overcook quickly and turn rubbery when boiled or heated hard, so they should be warmed gently just until the edges curl.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, pepper, vinegar, butter, sugar, egg, mustard):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Dillfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, pepper, vinegar, butter, sugar, egg, mustard. 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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