Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Green-corn Fritters
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Beat the eggs well in a bowl.
Gradually add the corn, milk, and melted butter.
Stir in enough flour to hold the mixture together, then add baking powder and salt.
Fry
Heat lard in a kettle until hot.
Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into the hot fat and fry until light brown.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Corn + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,165 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,345 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure as they set in the hot fat.
- All-purpose flour
- Gives the batter body so it holds together rather than spreading in the fat.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas that lifts the fritters, giving them a lighter texture.
- Corn
- Provides the main flavor and a tender, juicy bite inside the fritter.
- Milk
- Thins the batter to a workable consistency and adds moisture.
The step that matters
Drop spoonfuls into hot fat. If the fat is not hot enough, the batter absorbs oil and turns greasy instead of crisping. Hot fat sears the outside quickly, setting the shape and browning the surface while the inside cooks 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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