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To Pickle Oysters

This recipe preserves oysters in a vinegar and ketchup brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

To Pickle Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oysters

  1. Put the oysters in a saucepan with their own liquor.

  2. Dust the oysters with fine sugar.

  3. Heat gently for 5 minutes without boiling.

  4. Strain the liquor into another saucepan.

Make the pickle

  1. Add vinegar, catsup, cayenne pepper, lemon peel, and salt to the saucepan.

  2. Boil the mixture for 15 minutes.

Pickle and store

  1. Dust the oysters again with sugar and salt.

  2. Place the oysters in a stone jar.

  3. Pour the cooled pickle over the oysters.

  4. Cover tightly.

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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Vinegar + lemontop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,334 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Are the main ingredient, cooked gently so they stay tender while they take on the pickle.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the oysters and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.
Fine sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and adds a mellow sweetness to the pickle.

The step that matters

Heating the oysters without boiling. Boiling toughens oyster flesh and makes it shrink and become rubbery. Gentle heat firms the oysters just enough while keeping them tender for the pickle.

“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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