Why it works: Corn and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,345 recipes. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Corn Fritters
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the batter
Grate the corn from the ears.
Mix the grated corn with the beaten egg.
Fry
Heat butter in a skillet.
Drop spoonfuls of the corn mixture into the hot butter.
Fry until browned, then turn them like cakes.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,345 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Corn + eggtop 26% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,484 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Corn
- Provides the main bulk and sweet flavor of the fritters.
- Egg
- Binds the grated corn together so the fritters hold their shape.
- Butter
- Fries the fritters, adding fat for browning and rich flavor.
The step that matters
Drop spoonfuls into hot butter. If the butter is not hot enough, the fritters absorb fat, turn greasy and fall apart. Hot fat sets the outside quickly so the batter holds its shape and browns.
“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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