Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Fried Oysters
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the oysters
Boil the oysters in their own liquor for 1 minute and drain them.
Cook
In a frying pan, melt the butter and add the catsup, lemon peel, and parsley.
Fry the oysters in the mixture for about 5 minutes until cooked.
Serve
Serve on a dish and garnish with fried potatoes and toasted bread.
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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Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,037 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,184 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Oyster + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,545 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together28,563 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Oysters
- Provide the main body and flavour of the dish, cooked until firm.
- Butter
- Carries the heat and adds richness to the frying mixture.
- Catsup
- Adds sweetness and acidity to the buttery pan mixture.
- Lemon peel
- Adds bright aroma from its fragrant oils.
The step that matters
Frying the oysters. Oysters turn rubbery when overcooked, so they should be fried only until cooked through, while the mixture is hot enough to coat them.
“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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