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Corn Oysters

A fried batter of corn, eggs, milk, and cracker crumbs seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Corn Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, combine the grated corn or mashed canned corn with eggs and milk.

  2. Add enough cracker crumbs to create a stiff batter.

  3. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Fry

  1. Heat a mixture of butter and lard in a skillet.

  2. Drop spoonfuls of the batter into the hot skillet and fry until golden brown on both sides.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  3. Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,324 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Egg + buttertop 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

Eggs
Bind the batter together and help the oysters set firm when fried.
Corn
Provides the main body, sweetness and flavour of the fritters.
Milk
Adds moisture so the batter can mix smoothly with the crumbs.
Cracker crumbs
Absorb liquid and thicken the batter so it holds its shape in the pan.

The step that matters

Keep the batter stiff before frying. Enough cracker crumbs must be added so the batter holds its shape. A loose batter spreads and falls apart in the hot fat, and the crumbs help the outside brown and 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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