Name: Oyster Croquettes
Ingredients: ends of oysters; mashed potatoes; butter; coarse sea salt; black pepper; cream; beaten eggs; cracker crumbs; sweet lard (for frying)

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Oyster Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Scald the ends of the oysters and chop them finely.
Mix the chopped oysters with an equal weight of mashed potatoes, butter, coarse sea salt, black pepper, and cream.
Form the mixture into small rolls.
Dip each roll in beaten eggs, then coat with cracker crumbs.
Fry in sweet lard until golden brown.

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.

Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,184 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,456 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Oyster + eggtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,103 recipes

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

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

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, butter, pepper, cream, egg):

Asparagusfits about as well
Potatothe original
Spinachfits about as well
Capsicumfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, butter, pepper, cream, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.