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Fried Oysters

Fried oysters are oysters coated in seasoned cracker crumbs and beaten eggs, then fried until golden brown.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Oyster and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,103 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Fried Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Select large oysters and ensure no shell adheres.

  2. Rinse oysters in cold water and drain well.

  3. Season cracker crumbs with salt and pepper.

Bread and fry

  1. Dip oysters in seasoned crumbs, then in beaten eggs mixed with water, and back into the crumbs.

  2. Fry five or six oysters at a time in hot fat until golden brown.

Serve

  1. Serve immediately with pickles, horseradish, chow-chow, tartare sauce, or celery salad.

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

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

  2. Oyster + peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,663 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + eggtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together50,580 recipes

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

Pepper and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 50,580 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

Large oysters
Provide the tender, briny centre that the crisp coating surrounds.
Finely rolled cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, golden crust that browns during frying.
Large eggs
Bind the crumbs to the oysters so the coating stays on while frying.

The step that matters

Fry in small batches in very hot fat. Frying only five or six oysters at a time keeps the fat hot, so the coating crisps and browns quickly. Crowding the pan cools the fat, which lets the coating soak up oil and turn greasy while the oyster 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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