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Oyster Plant

A dish made from boiled oyster plant, served in various forms such as fried slices or cakes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Oyster Plant

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and boil

  1. Wash the oyster plant.

  2. Scrape the oyster plant.

  3. Boil the oyster plant in salt water until tender.

  4. Drain the oyster plant.

Fried slices

  1. Slice the oyster plant.

  2. Dip the slices in egg.

  3. Coat the slices with bread or cracker crumbs.

  4. Fry the slices until golden brown.

Creamed oyster plant

  1. Chop the boiled oyster plant and return to heat.

  2. Add 1 cup of cream or rich milk mixed with 1 teaspoon of flour.

  3. Season with butter, coarse sea salt, and pepper, then boil.

  4. Serve immediately.

Mashed cakes

  1. Mash the oyster plant and season.

  2. Add a beaten egg.

  3. Add enough flour to bind.

  4. Form into cakes.

  5. Fry until golden.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, 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

Oyster plant
Forms the main body of every version, providing the bulk of the dish.
Egg
Binds the mashed mixture and helps crumbs stick to the slices.
Flour
Thickens the cream sauce and binds the mashed mixture into cakes.
Cream or rich milk
Adds richness and moisture to the creamed version.
Bread crumbs or cracker crumbs
Form a crisp coating that browns when fried.
Butter
Adds fat, flavour and richness to the seasoned dish.

The step that matters

Boil the oyster plant in salt water until tender. A fully tender root mashes smoothly and cooks evenly in later steps. Undercooked oyster plant stays fibrous, so it chops and mashes poorly and holds its shape badly.

“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.

More oyster plant recipes

Scalloped 8Fried 6Stew 4Creamed 3Stewed 3 See all 7 →

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