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Oyster Croquettes

Oyster croquettes are fried balls made from oysters, cream, butter, flour, egg yolks, parsley, nutmeg, salt, and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Oyster Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oysters

  1. Boil the oysters in their own liquor for 5 minutes, then drain and chop them.

Make the filling

  1. In a saucepan, combine the oyster liquor and cream.

  2. Rub together the butter and flour, then add to the saucepan and stir until thickened.

  3. Remove from heat and mix in the chopped oysters, egg yolks, parsley, nutmeg, salt, and cayenne pepper.

  4. Once cooled, shape the mixture into croquettes.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip each croquette in beaten egg, then coat with bread crumbs.

  2. Fry in boiling oil 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.

  1. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Form the main body of the filling, giving the croquettes their flavour and texture.
Flour
Thickens the cream and oyster liquor into a firm base that holds the croquettes together.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the filling as it sets.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness to the thickened filling.
Butter
Adds fat and flavour, and helps the flour thicken the sauce smoothly.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns during frying.

The step that matters

Cool the filling before shaping. A warm, loose filling will not hold its shape and may burst or slump in the hot oil. Chilling firms the starch-thickened mixture so the croquettes keep their form and fry evenly.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Cinnamonfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Capersfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, cream, butter, flour, egg, nutmeg, pepper. 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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