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Fried Oysters

Fried oysters coated in cracker dust and eggs, then fried in butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Oyster and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,184 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓

Fried Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Drain the oysters on a cloth.

  2. Roll the oysters in cracker dust.

  3. Dip the oysters in beaten eggs.

  4. Roll the oysters again in cracker dust.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry the oysters in hot butter until they are a nice brown color.

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

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

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

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

  3. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Oyster + peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,663 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 ingredient, cooked whole so the coating surrounds their tender flesh.
Cracker dust
Forms a crisp, browned coating that protects the oyster from direct heat.
Eggs
Bind the cracker dust to the oysters so the coating adheres during frying.
Butter
Conducts heat for frying and adds richness and browning to the coating.

The step that matters

Fry the oysters in hot butter until they are a nice brown color.. If the butter is not hot enough, the coating absorbs fat and turns greasy instead of crisp. Too much heat browns the crust before the oyster is cooked through, so the color is the cue to watch.

“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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