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Mocked Fried Oysters

A fried dish made from mashed salsify shaped like oysters, coated in crumbs and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Mocked Fried Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Prepare the salsify as in the previous recipe or use leftover salsify.

  2. Mash the salsify with a fork until even, blending in enough cream sauce to soften it without making it too wet.

  3. Shape the mixture into oyster-like forms.

Coat and fry

  1. Roll each shape in bread or cracker crumbs.

  2. Dip in a beaten egg mixed with a little milk or water, and season with pepper and salt.

  3. Cover again with crumbs and fry in deep fat until golden.

  4. Garnish with parsley or watercress before serving.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Bread + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,588 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Salsify
Provides the bulk and mild, oyster-like flavour of the filling.
Cream sauce
Softens the mashed salsify and adds richness without making it too wet.
Egg
Binds the breading so the crumbs stick and form a crisp coating.
Bread or cracker crumbs
Forms a crisp, golden outer crust when fried.

The step that matters

Keeping the mixture moist but not wet. Too much cream sauce makes the shapes soft and likely to fall apart in the fat, while too little leaves the mash dry and crumbly. Adding it gradually and checking the texture keeps the shapes firm enough to bread and fry.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, sauce, bread, egg, milk, pepper):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Celeryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sauce, bread, egg, milk, pepper. 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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