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California Oyster Cocktails

A chilled oyster cocktail with tomato ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Ketchup and sauce 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 ↓

California Oyster Cocktails

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Drain the liquor from the oysters.

Mix and serve

  1. In a bowl, combine the oysters with tomato ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco sauce, and lemon juice.

  2. Serve chilled.

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. Ketchup + saucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Tomato + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Oyster + saucetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Tomato + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,469 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Oyster + ketchuptop 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
The main ingredient, providing the briny seafood flavor and tender texture.
Tomato ketchup
Adds sweetness, body, and a tangy base for the cocktail sauce.
Worcestershire sauce
Adds savory depth and a sharp, fermented tang.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the sweetness.
Tabasco sauce
Adds a small amount of heat and pungency.

The step that matters

Drain the liquor from the oysters. Excess oyster liquor carries extra water and brine, which would thin the sauce and dilute its flavor. Draining it keeps the cocktail sauce thick and well seasoned.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, tomato, ketchup, sauce):

  1. Limefits about as well
  2. Avocadofits about as well
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Grapefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, tomato, ketchup, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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