Why it works: Oyster and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,545 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Oyster Sausage
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Chop the oysters, veal, and suet together.
Make the mixture
In a bowl, combine the chopped mixture with bread crumbs, egg, flour, salt, and pepper.
Pound the mixture in a mortar until well combined.
Cook
Form small cakes and fry them until golden brown.
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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Oyster + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,545 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Oyster + eggtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,103 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,964 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (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
- Egg
- Binds the chopped mixture together so the cakes hold their shape.
- Bread crumbs
- Absorb moisture and give the cakes body and a tender texture.
- Suet
- Adds fat that keeps the cakes moist and adds richness.
- Flour
- Helps dry the mixture and supports the cakes while they fry.
The step that matters
Frying the cakes until golden brown. Frying over steady heat browns the outside through the Maillard reaction while the inside cooks through. Too little heat leaves the cakes greasy and pale, and too much burns the outside before the centre is cooked.
“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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