Name: Panned Oysters
Ingredients: 1 large piece of bread, buttered; Liquor from oysters; Oysters; Salt and pepper to taste; 2 tablespoons Madeira wine (optional)

Why it works: Bread and oyster are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 2,544 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Panned Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Butter a large piece of bread and place it in a hot pan.
Pour the liquor from the oysters into the pan.
Once hot, add the oysters and season lightly with salt and pepper.
If desired, add Madeira wine just before removing from heat.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Bread + oystertop 5% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together2,544 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Bread + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together20,964 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Oyster + peppertop 12% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together7,651 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Bread + madeira winetop 15% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together119 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Pepper + madeira winetop 15% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together582 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).