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Fried Oysters

A fried oyster dish coated in cracker and bread crumbs, seasoned with salt, pepper, nutmeg, and fried in deep fat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Fried Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the coating

  1. Mix cracker crumbs with browned bread crumbs, and season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

  2. In a bowl, combine the beaten egg with milk.

Coat the oysters

  1. Dip each oyster in the crumb mixture, then in the egg, and back in the crumbs.

  2. Shape the oysters and place them on a platter until ready to fry.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat deep fat until boiling hot.

  2. Carefully add 5 or 6 oysters at a time, turning quickly.

  3. Remove the oysters when they are light brown and place them on a hot platter.

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. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  2. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  3. Oyster + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,545 recipes

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

  4. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Are the main filling ingredient, cooked briefly so the centre stays tender and moist.
Egg
Binds the crumb coating to the oysters so it adheres during frying.
Cracker crumbs
Form a fine, crisp crust that browns in the hot fat.
Bread crumbs
Add extra crunch and browning to the outer coating.
Milk
Thins the egg so it coats the oysters evenly and carries the crumbs.

The step that matters

Frying the oysters. Fat must be boiling hot and the oysters should go in a few at a time. Hot fat crisps the crumb coating quickly, while a cold or crowded pan soaks in oil and makes the coating greasy and the oysters overcooked.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Nutmegthe original
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Marjoramfits less well
  4. Celeryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, bread, pepper, egg, milk. 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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