Skip to main content
Baking

Oyster Corks

Oyster corks are small, fried balls of veal and oysters shaped like corks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Oyster Corks

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Finely chop the veal and pound it in a mortar.

  2. Add the finely chopped oysters, bread crumbs, beaten egg, melted butter, and seasonings.

  3. Mix the ingredients to form a smooth paste and shape into balls about 1 inch in diameter.

Shape and fry

  1. Using slight pressure, roll the balls into shapes resembling corks.

  2. Dip the corks in bread crumbs, then in egg, and again in bread crumbs.

  3. Fry in deep fat until golden brown and drain on brown paper.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Butter + oystertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

Veal
Provides the main body of the filling, held together by the paste.
Egg
Binds the paste and the coating together so the corks hold their shape.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture in the paste and form a crisp, browned outer coating.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the paste stay moist and browning the surface.
Oysters
Add a briny, savory flavor to the veal mixture.

The step that matters

Fry in deep fat until golden brown. The coated corks are cooked through by hot fat, and the coating must brown without overcooking. Too cool a fat lets the coating soak up oil and turn greasy, while the filling needs enough time to set.

“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.

You might also like

Delicate CakeDelicate Cake246 recipesBoiled FrostingBoiled Frosting69 recipesCitron CakeCitron Cake68 recipesScotch CakeScotch Cake63 recipes