There’s a French restaurant in downtown Poughkeepsie that has the best fried oyster appetizer. The oysters are fried perfectly, nestled over a bell pepper relish and with a dab of garlic aioli over top. Scrumpdelish. It’s the kind of dish that you think about, almost obsessively, until you eat it again. I did muster up the nerve to ask the chef to share the recipe, but natch, he was tight-lipped.

After testing fried oyster recipes, I figured out the secret to frying oysters perfectly is combining flours, and perfecting fry time. And, I have perfected this favored fried oyster appetizer, and perhaps, I’ve perfected the recipe even better than I recalled. Here is the secret to frying oysters perfectly!