Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Fried Oysters
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Select the largest oysters.
Remove gills from oysters and dip them in the beaten egg.
Coat the oysters in bread or cracker crumbs.
Fry
Fry in equal parts of butter and lard until they are brown.
For a variation, dip in cornmeal instead of crumbs.
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.
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,184 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Oyster + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,545 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Oyster + eggtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- The main ingredient, providing the tender, briny filling inside the crisp coating.
- Egg
- Binds the crumb or cornmeal coating to the oyster so it stays on during frying.
- Bread or cracker crumbs
- Forms a crisp, golden-brown coating that contrasts with the soft oyster.
- Butter and lard
- Fat for frying that conducts heat evenly and promotes browning and rich flavor.
The step that matters
Frying until brown. Oysters cook very quickly, and overcooking makes them tough and rubbery. The coating should brown just as the oyster heats through, so the fat must be hot enough to brown the crumbs fast without leaving the oyster to dry out.
“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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