Why it works: Flour and butter 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 Fritters
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Gradually stir the tepid water and salad oil into the flour until smooth.
Add salt to the batter, then fold in the stiffly whipped egg whites.
Fry the oysters
Remove the gills from the oysters, dip them in the batter, and fry in hot fat until golden brown.
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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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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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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
- Flour
- Forms the batter's structure, which coats and holds each oyster together.
- Whites of eggs
- Whipped to stiff peaks, they add airiness and lightness to the batter.
- Oysters
- The main ingredient, whose briny flavour is the centre of the fritter.
- Salad oil or melted butter
- Adds fat, giving the batter a tender texture and helping it brown.
The step that matters
Frying the battered oysters in hot fat. Hot fat sets the batter quickly into a crisp coating before it can soak up oil. If the fat is too cool, the batter absorbs grease and turns heavy and greasy instead of golden.
“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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