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Summer Squash a LA Fried Oysters

Fried slices of summer squash coated in egg and flour, then pan‑fried in butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Summer Squash a LA Fried Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the summer squash into round slices.

  2. Dip each slice in the beaten egg.

  3. Roll the slices in flour seasoned with salt and pepper.

Fry

  1. Fry the coated slices in hot butter until golden brown.

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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Summer squash
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking to a tender interior inside a crisp coating.
Egg
Binds the flour coating to the squash so it adheres during frying.
Flour
Forms a dry coating that browns and crisps when fried in butter.
Butter
Conducts heat for frying and adds richness and browning flavour to the coating.

The step that matters

Frying the coated slices in hot butter. If the butter is not hot enough, the coating absorbs fat and turns greasy instead of crisping. Too hot, and the flour browns before the squash cooks through. Fry in a single layer so the pan stays hot.

“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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