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Mock Fried Oysters

A fried dish made from oyster-plant, seasoned and coated in flour or crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Mock Fried Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oyster-plant

  1. Wash, trim, and cook the oyster-plant in boiling salted water until tender.

  2. Drain and scrape off the skin.

  3. Mash well, and if stringy, rub through a colander.

Shape and fry

  1. Mix in flour, butter, beaten egg, and season with salt and pepper.

  2. Shape a small spoonful into an oval about the size of a large oyster.

  3. Dip each oval lightly in flour or cracker crumbs.

  4. Brown on each side in hot butter.

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. Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

Oyster-plant
Forms the main body of the fritters, providing their mild, savory flavor.
Egg
Binds the mashed mixture so the ovals hold their shape while frying.
Flour
Thickens the mash slightly and gives the coating a light, crisp browning.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the outside brown evenly in the pan.

The step that matters

Brown on each side in hot butter. If the butter is not hot enough, the ovals soak up fat and turn greasy instead of forming a browned crust. Browning depends on the surface reaching high heat quickly.

“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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