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
Beat the eggs in a bowl.
Mix the beaten eggs with the grated corn.
Add enough flour to form a paste that holds together.
Fry and serve
Heat lard in a pan over high heat.
Fry spoonfuls of the mixture until they are light brown.
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.
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Corn + wheattop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together465 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,373 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,165 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + wheattop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,225 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- Grated green corn
- Provides the main bulk, sweetness and moisture of the fritters.
- Eggs
- Bind the corn together and help the fritters hold their shape while frying.
- Wheat flour
- Thickens the mixture into a paste so the fritters hold together.
- Lard
- Fries the fritters, conducting heat and promoting even browning on the outside.
The step that matters
Frying spoonfuls of the mixture. The lard must be hot before the batter goes in, otherwise the fritters absorb grease, turn greasy and may fall apart. Frying until light brown sets the outside and cooks the centre through.
“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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