Skip to main content
Main

Oyster Fritters

A batter of eggs, flour, sweet milk, and oysters fried in hot lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Egg and oyster are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,103 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Oyster Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Beat the eggs in a bowl.

  2. Stir in the flour, sweet milk, and salt until combined.

  3. Wash the oysters in cold water and strain the liquor through a coarse towel.

  4. Add the oysters to the egg and flour mixture.

  5. Thin the batter with the reserved oyster liquor.

Fry

  1. In a frying pan, heat the hot lard.

  2. For large oysters, use a large spoon to drop one at a time into the hot lard.

  3. For smaller oysters, drop two or three at a time with the batter.

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. Egg + oystertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,103 recipes

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

  2. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  5. Milk + oystertop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,933 recipes

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

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and help the fritters hold together while frying.
All-purpose flour
Provides the starch and structure that gives the batter body and a set crust.
Sweet milk
Adds moisture and softness to the batter, loosening it with the flour and eggs.
Oysters
The main ingredient, cooking through in the hot fat while adding their briny flavor.
Lard
Frying fat that transfers heat quickly, browning the outside and crisping the batter.

The step that matters

Drop the batter into hot lard. The lard must be hot before the batter goes in. Hot fat sets and browns the outside quickly, so the fritters absorb less grease and do not turn heavy or soggy.

“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 fritters recipes

Mock 4 See all 129 →

You might also like

Mock Oyster SoupMock Oyster Soup21 recipesCorn FrittersCorn Fritters6 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipes