Why it works: Corn and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,165 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Corn Oysters
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Mix the grated corn, beaten egg, and flour in a bowl until well combined.
Fry
Heat Cottolene in a frying pan until boiling.
Drop tablespoonfuls of the mixture into the hot Cottolene.
Fry until golden brown and cooked through.
Serve
Serve warm, ideally with cold boiled ham.
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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Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,165 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Corn + eggtop 26% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,484 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- Grated sweet corn
- Provides the main bulk and sweet corn flavour of the fritters.
- Egg
- Binds the corn and flour together so the fritters hold their shape.
- Flour
- Adds starch that thickens the batter and helps the fritters set while frying.
The step that matters
Fry until golden brown and cooked through. The batter must be fully set inside while the outside browns. Frying too hot browns the outside before the centre cooks, while frying too cool lets the fritters soak up fat and turn greasy.
“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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