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Oyster Kabobs

Oyster kabobs are oysters threaded on skewers with bacon, coated in egg and breadcrumb mixture, then fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Oyster and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,545 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Oyster Kabobs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Open the oysters and keep the liquor.

  2. Remove the gills and hard parts from the oysters.

  3. Cut eight pieces of thin bacon, the same size as the oysters, for every six oysters.

  4. Prepare wooden skewers, one for each person.

Assemble and coat

  1. Thread six oysters onto each skewer, placing a piece of bacon between each oyster and at both ends.

  2. Mix bread crumbs with cayenne pepper and coarse sea salt.

  3. Beat an egg and coat the kabobs with it, then roll in the bread crumb mixture.

Fry

  1. Heat lard in a frying basket and fry the kabobs 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 + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,545 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

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

  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
Provide the main filling, cooking quickly in the hot fat while staying tender inside.
Thin fat bacon
Adds fat and savory flavor that bastes the oysters as it renders during frying.
Egg
Acts as a glue so the bread crumbs stick evenly to the kabobs.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden browned crust when fried.

The step that matters

Fry until golden brown. Oysters cook quickly and turn rubbery if overcooked, so frying should be brief and just enough to brown the coating while the oysters remain tender.

“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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