Why it works: Corn and wheat match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 465 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓
Corn Oysters
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the batter
Grate the corn from the cob as finely as possible.
Dredge the grated corn in wheat flour.
Beat the eggs until light and mix gradually with the corn.
Beat the mixture well and add salt.
Fry and serve
Heat the butter and lard in a pan until hot.
Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into the hot fat to form cakes about 3 inches long and 1 inch thick.
Fry until brown and serve hot.
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.
-
Corn + wheattop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together465 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
-
Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,373 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,165 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Butter + wheattop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,002 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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
- Corn
- Forms the bulk of the fritters and provides their sweet, starchy body.
- Eggs
- Bind the grated corn together and give the fritters structure as they set.
- Wheat flour
- Dusts the corn so the batter holds together and absorbs surface moisture.
- Butter
- Adds richness and flavour, and helps the fritters brown in the hot fat.
- Lard
- Provides a hot frying fat that crisps and browns the outside of the cakes.
The step that matters
Heat the fat until hot before frying. Dropping the batter into fat that is not yet hot lets the cakes soak up grease and cook unevenly. A hot pan sets the outside quickly, forming a browned crust and keeping the inside tender.
“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.
More corn fritters recipes
You might also like
Cream of Corn Soup50 recipes
Green Corn Soup46 recipes
Cornmeal Gruel41 recipes
Cornmeal Pudding32 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.