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Oyster Sausages

A fried sausage made from oysters, bread crumbs, spices, and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Oyster Sausages

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the oysters finely.

  2. In a bowl, combine the chopped oysters, bread crumbs, pepper, celery leaves, and salt.

  3. Mix in the egg yolks to form a stiff paste.

Shape and fry

  1. Shape the mixture into pieces 2 inches long and 1 inch wide.

  2. Fry the pieces in hot oil until they are a delicate 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. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  2. Oyster + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,545 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

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

  4. Oyster + eggtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,103 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Bread + celerytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,110 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Provide the main flavour and the bulk of the filling.
Stale bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and bind the oysters into a shapeable mixture.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture into a stiff paste that holds its shape.

The step that matters

Fry the pieces in hot oil until they are a delicate brown.. If the oil is not hot enough, the pieces soak up oil and turn greasy before browning. Frying at a steady, hot temperature sets the outside quickly and gives a crisp, evenly coloured surface.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, bread, pepper, egg. 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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