Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Corn Oysters
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Grate the corn and place it in a bowl.
Add flour, eggs, baking powder, cream, salt, and pepper; mix well.
Fry
Heat butter in a frying pan over medium heat.
Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into the hot pan.
Fry until golden brown on both sides.
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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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,324 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,165 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,345 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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
- Corn
- Provides sweetness and bulk, with starch that helps thicken the batter.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and set as it cooks, giving the fritters structure.
- Flour
- Thickens the batter and helps the fritters hold their shape while frying.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, helping the fritters puff and lighten.
- Cream
- Adds moisture and richness, softening the texture of the fritters.
The step that matters
Keep the pan at medium heat. Medium heat lets the outside turn golden brown while the centre cooks through. Too hot and the outside browns or burns before the inside sets; too cool and the fritters absorb butter 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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