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Mock Oysters

A fried corn fritter shaped like oysters, made with grated sweet corn, flour, egg yolks, lard, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Mock Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Grate the sweet corn as fine as possible.

  2. Mix the grated corn with the flour and beaten egg yolks until well combined.

Fry and serve

  1. In a frying pan, heat equal parts lard and butter until boiling hot.

  2. Drop portions of the mixture into the hot fat, shaping them like oysters. Fry until brown.

  3. Serve hot. They should be nearly 1 inch thick.

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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Sweet corn
Provides the bulk and sweet corn flavour, with starch that thickens the mixture once grated.
Flour
Binds the grated corn so the portions hold their oyster shape in the hot fat.
Egg yolks
Add richness and bind the batter, helping the fritters set and hold together.
Lard
Conducts heat for frying and gives the outside a crisp, browned crust.
Butter
Adds flavour and helps the exterior brown in the hot frying fat.

The step that matters

Frying the portions in very hot fat. The fat must be boiling hot so the outside sets and browns quickly. If the fat is too cool, the portions absorb oil, spread and turn greasy instead of holding their oyster shape.

“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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