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Fried Oysters

Fried oysters coated in egg, cream, breadcrumbs, and fried in butter and lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Fried Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oysters

  1. Remove the gills from the oysters and ensure they are fresh.

Coat the oysters

  1. In a bowl, whisk together the egg and cream.

  2. Dip each oyster into the egg mixture.

  3. Coat each oyster with breadcrumbs. Repeat coating step twice for a thick coating.

Fry and serve

  1. In a frying pan, heat the butter and lard until boiling.

  2. Carefully add the oysters to the hot oil and fry until golden brown on both sides.

  3. Serve immediately while hot.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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

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

  4. Oyster + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,886 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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 to stay tender inside a crisp coating.
Egg
Binds the cream and helps the breadcrumbs adhere to each oyster.
Breadcrumbs
Form the crisp, golden coating that browns when fried.
Butter
Adds rich flavour and helps the coating brown in the pan.
Lard
Heats to a high temperature for frying and adds richness to the crust.

The step that matters

Frying the coated oysters. Oil must be hot before the oysters go in, so the coating sets and browns quickly. Oysters cook fast and become rubbery if left too long in the pan.

“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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