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Oysters, Sausages of

Oyster sausages are small, fried sausage-like patties made from oysters, beef suet, breadcrumbs, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Oysters, Sausages of

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Open the oysters and mince them finely.

  2. Soak the bread crumbs in the oyster liquor for a few minutes, then mix with the minced oysters and beef suet.

  3. Season the mixture with mace, salt, pepper, and cayenne, then moisten with the beaten yolks of the eggs.

Shape and fry

  1. Form the mixture into small sausages, about 3 inches long, and coat them well with flour.

  2. Fry the sausages in hot fat until lightly browned, about 7 to 8 minutes.

  3. Drain the sausages and serve piled high on a napkin, garnished with parsley.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Bread + beeftop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Oyster + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,545 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Provide the main flavour and the soft, moist filling of the sausages.
Bread crumbs
Soak up the oyster liquor to bind the mixture and keep it tender.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the sausages moist and rich as they cook.
Eggs
Bind the mixture together, using the beaten yolks to moisten it and hold the shape.
Flour
Forms a thin coating that helps the outside brown when fried.

The step that matters

Frying the sausages. The sausages are soft and held together only by egg and crumbs, so they can break apart or absorb grease if the fat is not hot enough. Frying in hot fat until lightly browned sets the coating quickly and keeps the inside moist.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, bread, beef, pepper, egg, flour, parsley):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, bread, beef, pepper, egg, flour, parsley. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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