Name: Oyster Cocktail
Ingredients: 4 to 6 small oysters; 2 teaspoons catsup; 1 teaspoon horseradish; coarse sea salt to taste; cayenne pepper to taste; small piece of white celery for garnish

Why it works: Pepper and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Oyster Cocktail

Ingredients

Directions

Place 4 to 6 small oysters in a small goblet.
Cover the oysters with 2 teaspoons of catsup and then with 1 teaspoon of horseradish.
Season the oysters with coarse sea salt to taste and then with cayenne pepper to taste.
Garnish the oysters with a small piece of white celery.

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.

Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Horseradish + celerytop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together835 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Horseradish + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,646 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Oyster + horseradishtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together282 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Oyster + celerytop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,131 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters: Serve as the main ingredient, providing the cocktail's base and briny flavor.
Catsup: Adds sweetness and acidity that balance the brininess of the oysters.
Horseradish: Adds sharp, pungent heat that cuts through the richness of the oysters.