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Oyster Fritters

A batter of oysters, milk, eggs, and flour fried in dripping or butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Oyster Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Open the oysters and strain the liquor into a bowl.

  2. Add the milk and beaten eggs to the oyster liquor.

  3. Gradually stir in enough flour to make a smooth, thin batter.

  4. Add the oysters to the batter and mix well.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat dripping or butter in a clean frying pan until boiling.

  2. Drop spoonfuls of the batter into the hot fat, placing one or more oysters in each spoonful.

  3. Cook until one side is golden brown, then turn each fritter to brown the other side.

  4. Serve the fritters on a hot dish.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

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

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter 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

Oysters
Provide the main flavour and texture inside each fritter.
Eggs
Bind the batter and help it set when fried.
Flour
Thickens the liquid into a batter that holds its shape.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness to the batter.

The step that matters

Cook until one side is golden brown, then turn each fritter. The batter must set and form a crust before turning; turning too early can tear the fritter apart and leave it pale and greasy inside.

“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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