Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Corn Oysters
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a bowl, combine grated corn, milk, beaten eggs, salt, and pepper to form a batter.
Cook the fritters
Heat butter in a frying pan over medium heat.
Drop spoonfuls of the batter into the hot butter.
Cook until golden brown, then turn to cook the other side.
Serve hot for breakfast or as a side dish.
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.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Corn + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,324 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,345 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sweet corn
- Provides the bulk and sweet corn flavour of the fritters.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and help set the fritters as they cook.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and loosens the batter so it spreads in the pan.
The step that matters
Cooking the fritters until golden brown before turning. The batter needs enough time in the hot butter for the bottom to set and brown. Turning too early can tear the fritter apart, while cooking over too high a heat can scorch the outside before the centre sets.
“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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