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Oyster Sausages

A savory sausage made from oysters, breadcrumbs, suet, spices, and eggs, fried or boiled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Oyster Sausages

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oysters

  1. Remove the gills from the oysters.

  2. Rinse the oysters well in their strained liquor.

  3. Mince the oysters coarsely.

Make the mixture

  1. Mix the oysters with the breadcrumbs, chopped beef suet, salt, black pepper, cayenne, pounded mace, and grated nutmeg.

  2. Moisten the mixture with eggs and egg whites.

  3. Blend the mixture well.

  4. Let the mixture rest in a cool place for 2–3 hours.

  5. Form the mixture into small sausages or sausage cakes.

Cook and finish

  1. Coat the sausages with flour.

  2. Fry the sausages in butter until light brown.

  3. Boil the sausages in water for 3 minutes.

  4. Drain the sausages.

  5. Let them cool.

  6. Dip the cooled sausages in egg and breadcrumbs.

  7. Broil the sausages gently until lightly colored.

  8. Cook a small portion to taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.

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. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Bread + beeftop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

Oysters
Provide the main body and briny flavor of the sausage.
Bread-crumbs
Absorb moisture and bind the mixture so it holds its shape.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the sausages moist and tender during cooking.
Eggs
Bind the mixture together and help the coating set when cooked.

The step that matters

Boil the sausages in water for 3 minutes. The sausages are already raw-mixed with egg and oyster, so the brief boil must set them firmly enough to hold shape. Boiling too long makes them tough and they may break apart when frying or broiling.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, bread, beef, pepper, nutmeg, egg):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, bread, beef, pepper, nutmeg, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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