Fried Oysters With Tartar Sauce
Updated Oct. 25, 2021
- Total Time
- 45 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
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Ingredients
- ½cup all-purpose flour
- Kosher salt and finely ground black pepper
- 24shucked plump meaty oysters
- 2large eggs, well beaten
- 1cup panko bread crumbs
- Vegetable shortening, preferably Crisco (about 1½ pounds)
- 1garlic clove
- Kosher salt
- 2small shallots
- 8cornichons plus 2 tablespoons vinegar from the cornichon jar
- 2tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons capers and their brine
- 1shy cup mayonnaise, preferably Hellmann’s or Real Foods
- ⅓cup sour cream
- Juice of ½ lemon (about 1½ tablespoons)
- 1½tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
For the Oysters
For the Tartar Sauce
Nutritional analysis per serving (24 servings)
402 calories; 38 grams fat; 2 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 2 grams monounsaturated fat; 5 grams polyunsaturated fat; 7 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram dietary fiber; 12 grams sugars; 6 grams protein; 262 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
Prepare the oysters: Season flour with salt and pepper. Dredge each oyster in the flour, then dip in the beaten egg, then coat evenly in the panko.
- Step 2
Set breaded oysters on a baking cooling rack, leaving a little room between the oysters so they can dry and set. Refrigerate until ready to fry and serve.
- Step 3
Make the sauce: Finely mince garlic with a pinch of salt until sticky and pasty. Mince shallots, cornichons and capers as finely as possible. Add all to a small bowl. Stir in mayonnaise, sour cream, lemon juice, caper brine and cornichon vinegar, and stir well. Add chopped parsley, stir well and season to taste with salt. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
- Step 4
Fry the oysters: Melt enough shortening in a deep medium skillet (we love cast iron) over medium for 1½ inches of liquified fat once hot. Increase heat to medium-high. It’s ready to fry in when a few crumbs of panko or the tip of a wooden chopstick sizzles actively in the fat.
- Step 5
Add the oysters cold from the refrigerator, working in batches of 6 to 8 or as you have room. Fry, making sure to turn them to get both sides, until golden brown, 1 to 2 minutes, depending on size. Remove with a slotted spoon or spider, and let rest on a clean rack while you fry the rest. Season each batch with a little salt while still piping hot, as soon as you pull them from the fat. Serve with tartar sauce.
Private Notes
Comments
One of the things I love about this recipe is that there is no advice about how many servings it makes. I think two servings would be about right, but maybe it would work out to just one if I was feeling greedy.
Just added a pinch of cayenne to the batter. My oh my.
Here's a far simpler tartar sauce recipe that I learned from my father-in-law in Plymouth, MA. A true shellfish snob, he would only eat the clams, quahogs, and oysters that he dug himself. He never ordered them in a restaurant. Tartar Sauce: 1/2 cup mayonnaise, 1/2 cup sweet pickle relish, juice from 1/2 lemon.
I am now a crisco club member .Best oysters ever.
Used annec suggestion of tartar sauce, 1/2 cup meal 1/2 cup sweet pickle relish and one half lemon. And Tom Harkins recipe of crushed Saltines with Old Bay seasoning, fried for 2 minutes at 375. Actually fried for 2.5 minutes at 350. Had some trouble with losing breading, likely because I did not do an egg wash- fresh Jarred oysters-pretty moist already. Perhaps cooling them in the fridge for more than half an hour would have helped? Toasted sourdough, pickels, tomato, iceb. Lettuce. Lovely!
These were delicious. A bonus when I made these: what I thought was a shell fragment was a little pearl. I took it as an omen that I should fry more oysters more often.
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