Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Hominy Fritters
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a bowl, combine hot boiled hominy, eggs, salt, and flour.
Thin the mixture with a little cold milk until smooth.
Once cool, stir in baking powder until well mixed.
Fry
Drop tablespoons of the mixture into hot fat.
Fry until golden 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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Flour + milktop 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).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour and milk 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
- Hominy
- Forms the bulk of the fritter, giving it a substantial, slightly starchy body.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture together and help set the fritters as they cook.
- Flour
- Adds body and helps hold the batter together during frying.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas that lightens the batter so the fritters puff slightly.
The step that matters
Stir in baking powder after the mixture cools. Baking powder starts releasing gas once wet and can lose lifting power if left standing or stirred in while the batter is very hot. Adding it once cool and mixing just until combined helps the fritters rise evenly when they hit the hot fat.
“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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