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To Pickle Oysters

This recipe pickles oysters using vinegar and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

To Pickle Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Poach the oysters

  1. Heat the oysters in their own liquor until plump and white.

  2. Skim the oysters.

  3. Remove them with a skimmer.

Pickle

  1. Add vinegar equal to the amount of liquor.

  2. For each quart of liquor, add 1 tablespoon of mixed allspice, cloves, black pepper, and mace.

  3. Pour the hot vinegar over the oysters in flat dishes.

  4. Bottle the oysters if you want to keep them.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Allspice + macetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Provide the main ingredient, firming up and turning plump and white when heated in their liquor.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and preserves the oysters.
Mixed allspice
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavour to the pickling liquid.
Cloves
Adds strong aromatic spice flavour to the pickling liquid.
Whole black pepper
Adds sharp, aromatic heat to the pickling liquid.
Mace
Adds delicate, warm aromatic flavour to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Heating the oysters until just plump and white. Oysters turn tough and shrink when overcooked, so they should be heated only until their edges plump and their colour turns white. Removing them promptly keeps them tender before the hot vinegar is added.

Flavor stand-ins for the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, vinegar, allspice, clove, pepper):

  1. Cinnamonbetter flavor fit
  2. Thymebetter flavor fit
  3. Marjorambetter flavor fit
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, vinegar, allspice, clove, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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