Name: Angels on Horseback
Ingredients: 12 oysters; 12 small thin slices of bacon; 12 small round croutes of fried bread; 1 teaspoon finely chopped shallot; 1 teaspoon finely chopped parsley; a few drops of lemon juice; Krona pepper to taste

Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Angels on Horseback

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

12 oysters
12 small thin slices of bacon
12 small round croutes of fried bread
1 teaspoon finely chopped shallot
1 teaspoon finely chopped parsley
a few drops of lemon juice
Krona pepper to taste

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Remove gills from oysters.
Trim the bacon, cutting each piece to fit around an oyster.
Season bacon with black pepper, shallot, and parsley.

Wrap and secure

Place an oyster on each bacon slice, add lemon juice, and roll tightly.
Secure with a large pin.

Cook and serve

Fry in a frying pan or bake at 400°F (200°C) until bacon is crisp.
Remove the pin and serve on the croutons.

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.

Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,737 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Shallot + lemontop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,523 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters: Form the central filling, turning soft and briny as they cook inside the bacon.
Bacon: Its fat renders and crisps, browning the outside and seasoning the oyster.
Fried bread croutes: Provide a crisp base that soaks up rendered bacon fat and holds the roll.
Shallot: Adds a mild, sharp aromatic note that complements the bacon.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the rich bacon and briny oyster flavor.

The step that matters

Cooking until the bacon is crisp. Oysters cook quickly and turn rubbery if overheated, but the bacon needs enough heat to render its fat and crisp. Watching the bacon, not the oyster, guides doneness.

“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.

Brown Bread461 recipes

Lemon Sauce236 recipes

White Bread80 recipes

Bread Omelette60 recipes

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Angels on Horseback