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Dessert

Blackberry Fritters

A batter of sour milk or cream and egg, mixed with blackberries, fried in lard and served with syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and syrup are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,964 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Blackberry Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Make a stiff batter with sour milk or cream and the egg.

  2. Stir in the blackberries until well combined.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat a kettle of hot lard.

  2. Dip a tablespoon into the lard, then drop a spoonful of batter into the lard.

  3. Fry until golden brown and serve with syrup.

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. Cream + syruptop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  4. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Milk + syruptop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,143 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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

Sour milk or cream
Provides moisture and body, giving the batter a stiff, cohesive texture.
Egg
Binds the batter so the fritters hold together in the hot fat.
Blackberries
Add sweetness, tart flavor and moisture that gives pockets of juice within the fritter.
Lard
Conducts heat to cook the batter quickly and browns the outside into a crisp golden crust.

The step that matters

Keep the lard hot before dropping in the batter. If the fat is not hot enough, the batter soaks up grease instead of searing, leaving the fritters heavy and greasy rather than crisp and golden.

“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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