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Mock Oysters

A fried mock oyster made from oyster plant roots, butter, egg yolk, flour, and cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour 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 Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Boil the oyster plant roots in salted water until tender.

  2. Mash the roots finely and mix in butter, salt, and pepper.

  3. Add the beaten egg yolk and enough flour to create a stiff batter.

Shape and fry

  1. Shape the mixture into oyster-like forms and roll in salted cracker crumbs.

  2. Drop spoonfuls into hot lard and fry until golden brown.

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. Butter + flourtop 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. Egg + flourtop 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).

Butter and flour 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 roots
Provide the main body and mild, oyster-like flavor of the dish.
Egg yolk
Binds the mashed mixture together and adds richness to the batter.
Flour
Thickens the mashed roots into a stiff batter that holds its shape when fried.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, softening the mash and carrying flavor.
Salted cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, browned coating that protects the inside during frying.

The step that matters

Drop spoonfuls into hot lard and fry until golden brown. If the lard is not hot enough, the batter absorbs fat and turns greasy instead of crisping. Frying in hot fat quickly sets the crumb coating and browns the surface before the inside overcooks.

“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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