Why it works: Corn and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,955 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓
Corn Oysters
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the batter
Remove the kernels from the corn by splitting each row lengthwise and scraping out the pulp.
In a bowl, combine the corn pulp, beaten egg, salt, sweet milk, and enough flour to form a stiff batter.
Fry
Heat hot lard in a frying pan.
Drop spoonfuls of the batter into the hot lard.
Fry until golden brown.
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.
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Corn + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,165 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Sweet corn
- Provides the main body and sweet corn flavour of the fritters.
- Egg
- Binds the batter so the fritters hold together when fried.
- Flour
- Thickens the batter to a stiff consistency that holds its shape in the fat.
- Sweet milk
- Adds moisture to loosen the batter so the flour can hydrate evenly.
The step that matters
Frying the batter spoonfuls. The lard must be hot before the batter goes in. Hot fat sets the outside quickly and browns it, while cool fat lets the batter soak up grease and fall apart.
“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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