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Croquettes of Oystees

A fried dish of oysters mixed with cream, milk, and seasonings, formed into croquettes and coated in breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 ↓

Croquettes of Oystees

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oysters

  1. Put oysters in a hot, dry skillet and cook for 5 minutes.

  2. Drain and chop finely.

Make the filling

  1. Boil milk with flour, butter, and seasonings.

  2. Stir in finely chopped oysters and cream.

  3. Chill the mixture on ice until very cold.

Shape and coat

  1. Mould the mixture into croquettes.

  2. Dip the croquettes into bread crumbs.

  3. Dip them into eggs.

  4. Dip them again into crumbs.

  5. Return to ice until ready to fry.

  6. Chill for 2 hours before frying.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Provide the main flavor and bulk of the croquette filling.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a stiff base that holds the oysters together.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the roux-style base.
Cream
Adds moisture and smoothness so the filling stays tender.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the flour thickens into a sauce.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer coating when fried.

The step that matters

Chill the mixture until very cold before shaping. A thoroughly chilled filling is firm enough to hold its shape when moulded and coated, so the croquettes do not fall apart or leak in the frying oil.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, cream, parsley, milk, flour, pepper, butter):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, cream, parsley, milk, flour, pepper, butter. 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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