Name: Oyster Cocktail
Ingredients: 1 teaspoon Lea and Perrins sauce; 1 teaspoon tomato ketchup; 2 teaspoons lemon juice; Salt to taste; 6 oysters

Why it works: Sauce and ketchup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,099 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Oyster Cocktail

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Shuck the oysters and place them in a glass.
In a small bowl, mix the Lea and Perrins sauce, tomato ketchup, lemon juice, and salt.

Serve

Pour the sauce mixture over the oysters.
Serve immediately.

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.

Sauce + ketchuptop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,099 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Tomato + lemontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,592 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Sauce + oystertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,233 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sauce + tomatotop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,469 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ketchup + oystertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together318 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters: Provide the main raw seafood flavor and the tender body of the cocktail.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances the savory flavors.
Tomato ketchup: Adds sweetness and tomato body to the sauce.
Lea and perrins sauce: Adds savory, tangy depth from its fermented and spiced flavors.