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Fried Oysters or Clams

A dish of oysters or clams coated in egg and cracker crumbs, then fried in butter and lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Oyster and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,184 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓

Fried Oysters or Clams

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Beat the egg in a bowl.

  2. Grate the crackers into a separate dish.

  3. Sprinkle pepper on the oysters or clams.

  4. Dip each oyster or clam into the egg, then coat with the grated cracker.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat equal parts butter and lard in a pan.

  2. Fry the coated oysters or clams for a few minutes until golden.

  3. Drain on a towel briefly before serving.

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. Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  2. Egg + oystertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,103 recipes

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

  3. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Pepper + oystertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,663 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg
Binds the cracker crumbs to the oysters or clams so the coating stays on while frying.
Crackers
Form the crisp, golden crust that browns in the hot fat.
Oysters or clams
Provide the main filling, cooking quickly to a tender interior inside the crisp coating.
Butter and lard
Conduct heat for frying and add richness and browning to the crust.

The step that matters

Frying the coated oysters or clams. The fat must be hot enough to brown the crumb coating quickly; if it is too cool, the coating absorbs grease and turns soggy before it turns golden.

“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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