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Fried Oysters

A dish of oysters fried after coating with eggs and crumbs, served over toasted crackers with wine or vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By E. Putnam · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oysters

  1. Take large oysters.

  2. Wash them clean out of the liquor.

  3. Wipe them dry.

  4. Dip them in eggs and crumbs.

  5. Fry them in hot fat.

  6. Wash a pint of oysters.

  7. Let the liquor stand and settle about ten minutes.

Make the sauce

  1. Strain the liquor through a fine sieve into a saucepan.

  2. Add one third as much cold water as liquor.

  3. Add a piece of butter half the size of an egg.

  4. Treat the mixture with a little flour or cracker-crumbs.

  5. Stir this into the liquor.

  6. Add a little cayenne pepper and mace, if liked.

  7. Boil this up.

  8. Add the oysters.

Serve

  1. Toast a couple of crackers. Butter them a little. Lay them into the dish.

  2. Pour the oysters on to them.

  3. Add a little white wine before serving.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

276Calories
16 gProtein
20 gFat
8 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 9 ingredients. The other 3 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Oyster6 medium (84g)81
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Waternot in our table0
Liquornot in our table0
Macenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By E. Putnam. 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. See the original page.

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. Oyster + eggtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,103 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Pepper and mace barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Form the dish's main body and provide its briny, savoury flavour.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the sauce a smooth, rounded texture.
Flour or cracker-crumbs (in the method)
Thickens the liquor so the sauce becomes smooth and clings to the oysters.
Eggs
Bind the crumb coating so it adheres to the oysters while frying.

The step that matters

Fry them in hot fat. Oysters cook quickly and turn tough and rubbery if overheated or left too long. Hot fat sets the crumb coating into a crisp shell before the oyster inside overcooks.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, butter, egg, pepper, vinegar. 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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