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Oyster Fritters

Battered oysters fried until brown.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Oyster and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,103 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Oyster Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cook the oysters until plump.

  2. Drain the oysters, reserving the liquor.

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the oyster liquor, flour, and egg to make the batter.

  2. Dip each oyster into the batter.

Fry

  1. Fry the battered oysters in hot oil until 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. Oyster + eggtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,103 recipes

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

  2. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Oyster + flourtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,582 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (grass, green).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Oyster liquor
Adds moisture and a briny oyster flavor to the batter.
Flour
Forms the batter that coats the oysters and crisps when fried.
Egg
Binds the batter so it clings to the oysters.
Oil for frying
Transfers heat to the batter, browning and crisping its surface.

The step that matters

Fry in hot oil until brown. Hot oil sets and browns the batter quickly, giving a crisp coating. If the oil is too cool, the batter absorbs fat and turns greasy and soggy.

“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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