Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Chicken FritteRS
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the batter
Sift the flour into a bowl.
Melt the butter in warm water and gradually add to the flour, mixing to form a thick batter.
Season with salt and fold in the beaten egg white.
Fry the fritters
Shape the chicken into small walnut-sized balls.
Dip each ball into the batter and drop into very hot fat.
Fry until golden brown and cooked through.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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 + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + chickentop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,902 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Flour + chickentop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together10,559 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
Flour and butter 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
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the thick batter that coats and structures the fritters.
- Egg white
- Adds structure and lift to the batter as it sets in the hot fat.
- Butter
- Adds richness and tenderness to the batter.
- Chicken
- Forms the filling that is coated in batter and cooked through.
The step that matters
Drop the battered balls into very hot fat. Very hot fat sets the batter quickly so the coating crisps and browns rather than absorbing oil and turning greasy. Fat that is too cool lets the batter soak up oil and the chicken cook unevenly.
“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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