Skip to main content
Main

Angels on Horseback

Bacon-wrapped oysters fried in lard with a cracker dust batter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Angels on Horseback

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wrap each oyster in a slice of bacon and secure with a wooden skewer.

  2. In a bowl, mix cracker dust, eggs, and milk to create a batter.

  3. Dip the wrapped oysters in the batter.

Fry

  1. Fry the oysters in hot lard until golden 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. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  3. Oyster + milktop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,933 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Bacon
Wraps the oyster, adding salty, savory flavor and fat that crisps as it cooks.
Oysters
Provide the main filling, with a soft, briny interior that the coating surrounds.
Cracker dust
Forms a crisp, browning coating that holds the batter on the oysters.
Eggs
Bind the cracker dust and milk into a batter that clings to the wrapped oysters.
Milk
Thins the batter so it coats evenly and adds moisture to the crumb.

The step that matters

Frying the oysters in hot lard until golden brown. Hot fat sets the batter quickly and browns it before the oysters overcook. Oil that is too cool lets the coating soak up grease and turn 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.

More bacon-wrapped oysters recipes

on Toast 5 See all 61 →

You might also like

Mock Oyster SoupMock Oyster Soup21 recipesCorn FrittersCorn Fritters6 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipes