Name: Corn Mock Oysters and Corn Fritters
Ingredients: 1 cup corn pulp; 2 large eggs, well beaten; 1 teaspoon butter; ½ teaspoon coarse sea salt; ¼ teaspoon black pepper; 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour (or more as needed)

Why it works: Corn and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,324 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Corn Mock Oysters and Corn Fritters

Ingredients

1 cup corn pulp
2 large eggs, well beaten
1 teaspoon butter
½ teaspoon coarse sea salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour (or more as needed)

Directions

Prepare the corn

Cut down through the center of each row of corn kernels with a sharp knife.
Use the back of the knife to press out the pulp, leaving the hull on the cob.

Make the batter

In a bowl, combine the corn pulp, beaten eggs, butter, salt, pepper, and flour.
Mix until it holds together; add more flour if necessary.

Cook

Fry on a buttered griddle like griddle cakes, or drop spoonfuls into hot oil to make fritters.

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.

Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,324 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,165 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,345 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Corn pulp: Provides the main bulk, sweetness and moisture of the fritter.
Eggs: Bind the batter and help it set firmly as it cooks.
All-purpose flour: Adds structure so the batter holds together instead of spreading.
Butter: Adds richness and helps the surface brown on the griddle.

The step that matters

Mix until it holds together. Too little flour leaves a loose batter that falls apart or spreads in the pan, while extra flour added without care makes the fritters dense. Adding flour a little at a time lets you reach a batter that holds its shape.

“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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Corn Mock Oysters and Corn Fritters