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Oyster Fritters

Oyster fritters are small fried oysters coated in a thin batter of milk, eggs, flour, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and oyster 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 ↓

Oyster Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Scald the oysters in their own liquor and wipe them dry.

  2. Combine the milk and salt with the oyster liquor.

  3. Add the beaten eggs and enough flour to create a thin batter.

Fry and serve

  1. Drop each oyster into the batter using a spoon.

  2. Fry the oysters in boiling lard until they are light brown.

  3. Place a soft napkin on a flat dish and serve the fritters on it to absorb excess grease.

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. Egg + oystertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,103 recipes

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

  2. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  5. Milk + oystertop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,933 recipes

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

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the batter and help the fritters set into a tender coating when fried.
Flour
Thickens the liquid into a batter that clings to the oysters and gives structure to the coating.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness to the batter, helping it brown evenly while frying.
Lard
Conducts heat to cook the batter quickly and gives the fritters a crisp, golden browned surface.

The step that matters

Fry the oysters in boiling lard until they are light brown. The lard must be hot enough to set the batter immediately. If it is too cool, the batter absorbs fat and turns greasy and heavy instead of crisp.

“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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