Why it works: Oyster and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 22% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,663 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Pigs in Blanket
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Season the oysters with coarse sea salt and black pepper an hour before using.
Wrap each oyster in a thin slice of bacon and secure with a wooden toothpick.
Cook and serve
Cook in a hot frying pan until the bacon is brown.
Serve on small pieces of buttered 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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Oyster + peppertop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,663 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
- Large oysters
- Provide the main filling, becoming tender and briny when briefly heated.
- Thin slices of bacon
- Add fat and salt while browning, crisping the outside of each wrapped oyster.
- Buttered toast
- Gives a crisp, rich base that soaks up the bacon fat and oyster juices.
The step that matters
Cook in a hot frying pan until the bacon is brown. Oysters overcook quickly and turn rubbery with prolonged heat. The bacon needs enough heat to brown and render its fat, so the oyster is cooked just through while the bacon crisps.
“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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