Why it works: Corn and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,955 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓
Green Corn Fritters
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a bowl, combine the raw corn, milk, egg, salt, and pepper.
Add flour gradually until the mixture resembles a batter for griddle cakes.
Fry
Heat fat in a skillet over medium-high heat.
Drop spoonfuls of the batter into the hot fat and fry until golden brown on both sides.
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.
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Corn + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,324 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,165 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Raw corn
- Provides the main bulk and sweet corn flavour of the fritters.
- Egg
- Binds the batter so the fritters hold together when fried.
- Flour
- Thickens the liquid into a batter that sets and browns in the hot fat.
- Milk
- Adds moisture to the batter and helps it brown through the fried surface.
The step that matters
Drop spoonfuls into hot fat. The fat must be hot enough for the batter to set and brown quickly on the outside. If the fat is too cool, the fritters absorb more oil and turn greasy and dense before they cook through.
“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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