Why it works: Oyster and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 25% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,582 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells grass, green. The science ↓
Preserved Oysters
Ingredients
Directions
Open the oysters carefully, avoiding cuts except to separate the shells.
Place the oysters in a mortar and add 1 teaspoon of coarse sea salt.
Pound the oysters until well mixed, then rub through a fine sieve.
Return the mixture to the mortar and add enough flour to form a paste.
Roll out the paste several times, dusting with flour as needed.
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 + flourtop 25% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,582 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (grass, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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