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Oyster Fritters

A fried batter of oysters, eggs, milk, flour, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

Oyster Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Drain and chop the oysters.

  2. In a bowl, beat the eggs and add the milk and sifted flour; mix until smooth.

  3. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

  4. Stir in the chopped oysters and baking powder.

Fry

  1. Drop the mixture by tablespoons into hot butter and fry until golden.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

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

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set during frying.
Sifted flour
Forms the body of the batter, giving the fritters their structure.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the fritters puff and lighten.
Milk
Thins the batter to a smooth, pourable consistency and adds moisture.
Oysters
Main flavour ingredient, providing a briny taste and tender texture.
Butter
Fries the fritters, adding fat for browning and a rich flavour.

The step that matters

Fry in hot butter. The butter must be hot enough to set the outside quickly and brown it. If it is too cool, the batter absorbs fat and turns greasy and heavy instead of golden and crisp.

“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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