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Fried Hops

Fried hops are hops prepared, parboiled, seasoned, floured, and fried in lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Fried Hops

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Drain the prepared hops and dry them on a napkin.

  2. Parboil the hops for 5 minutes, then immerse them in cold water and dry again on a napkin.

  3. In an earthen bowl, combine the hops with lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Set aside.

Fry and serve

  1. When ready to cook, drain the hops, lightly flour them, and dip them in a frying batter.

  2. Fry the hops one at a time in hot lard until cooked, then drain and season with salt and pepper.

  3. Serve on a napkin.

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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Lemon + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Hops + flourtop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

  5. Hops + lemontop 40% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Hops
Form the main body of the dish, with a tender interior inside the fried coating.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the mild, bitter flavor of the hops.
Flour
Dusts the hops so the batter adheres and forms a crisp coating when fried.
Lard
Fat for frying that conducts heat and browns the batter into a crisp crust.

The step that matters

Fry the hops one at a time in hot lard. Frying in hot fat sets the batter quickly into a crisp crust. Crowding the pan or using lard that is not hot enough lowers the temperature, so the coating soaks up grease and turns soggy instead of crisp.

“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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