Why it works: Wheat and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓
Indian Fritters
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Mix the Indian meal and wheat flour together.
Stir in enough milk to create a thick batter.
Whisk the eggs until very light, then add them to the batter along with the salt.
Beat the mixture thoroughly.
Fry and serve
Fry spoonfuls of the batter in hot lard until golden brown.
Serve hot with butter and sugar or molasses.
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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Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,418 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,373 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 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
- Eggs
- Whisked eggs add lightness and help bind the batter together.
- Indian meal
- Forms the main body of the fritters, giving them a sturdy, grainy texture.
- Wheat flour
- Adds structure and helps the batter hold together when fried.
- Milk
- Moistens the dry ingredients into a thick batter that can be spooned into hot fat.
The step that matters
Fry spoonfuls of the batter in hot lard until golden brown. If the lard is not hot enough, the batter absorbs fat and turns greasy instead of crisping. Frying in hot fat sets the outside quickly and browns it through the Maillard reaction.
“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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