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Oyster Plant

A fried dish made from boiled oyster plant mixed with butter, egg yolk, salt, pepper, mace, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Oyster Plant

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oyster plant

  1. Wash, scrape, and boil the oyster plant until tender.

  2. Mash the cooked oyster plant until fine.

Make the mixture

  1. Cream the butter with the egg yolk and mix in the salt, pepper, and mace.

  2. Combine the mashed oyster plant with the seasoning.

  3. Roll spoonfuls of the mixture in flour.

Fry

  1. Fry in butter until golden 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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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

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

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

Oyster plant
Provides the main bulk and mild, subtly sweet flavour of the dish.
Egg yolk
Binds the seasoned mixture and adds richness to hold the fried cakes together.
Butter
Adds richness and carries the flavour, and browns in the pan for a golden crust.
Flour
Forms a dry coating that helps the outside brown and crisp during frying.

The step that matters

Fry in butter until golden brown. Butter browns quickly because its milk solids darken at moderate heat, so the pan can scorch before the centre is hot. Moderate heat and a watchful eye give an even golden crust.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Macethe original

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