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Fried Oysters

Fried oysters are oysters coated in egg and cracker crumbs, then fried until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Oyster and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,184 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓

Fried Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove oysters from their liquor and place them in a thickly folded napkin to dry.

  2. Heat butter and lard in a thick-bottom frying pan over medium heat.

  3. Season oysters with pepper and coarse sea salt.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip each oyster in beaten egg, then coat with fine cracker crumbs.

  2. Fry oysters in hot grease until golden brown, turning them with a broad-bladed knife.

  3. Serve crisp and hot.

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

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

  5. Oyster + peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,663 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

Large oysters
Main ingredient; they cook quickly and become tender inside a crisp coating.
Egg
Binds the cracker crumbs to the oysters so the coating stays on during frying.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, golden, browned coating when fried in fat.
Butter
Adds rich flavor and helps the coating brown in the frying fat.
Lard
Provides a high-heat frying fat that gives the coating a crisp finish.

The step that matters

Drying the oysters before coating. Surface moisture keeps the egg and crumbs from adhering and makes the hot fat spatter and cool, so drying the oysters well helps the coating stay on and fry crisp.

“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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