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
Prepare the batter
Drain the juice from the oysters.
In a bowl, combine the oyster juice, milk, salt, and beaten eggs.
Add flour until the mixture resembles a griddle-cake batter.
Envelop each oyster in a spoonful of the batter.
Fry and serve
Heat butter and lard in a frying pan over medium heat.
Fry the oysters until golden brown on both sides.
Serve immediately while 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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,184 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Oyster + eggtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,103 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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 filling, cooking through in the batter while their edges firm up.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and help it set firm and light around the oysters when fried.
- Flour
- Thickens the liquid into a batter that coats the oysters and holds its shape.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and softness to the batter, keeping the fritters tender inside.
- Butter and lard
- Conduct heat in the pan and promote browning, adding richness to the crisp exterior.
The step that matters
Frying the oysters until golden brown on both sides. The batter sets and browns through Maillard reaction at moderate heat; too hot and the outside burns before the egg batter cooks through, too cool and the fritters absorb fat and turn greasy.
“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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