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Fritters

Fritters made from floury potato, milk, cream, eggs, sugar, and butter, then fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Fritters

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 ↓

Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Mix the potato, milk, cream, egg yolks, egg whites, sugar, and butter until smooth.

  2. Cook on low heat, stirring constantly until thick.

  3. Spread the mixture to ½ inch thick on a buttered surface.

  4. Let it cool.

Fry

  1. Cut into fritters.

  2. Dip the fritters in batter.

  3. Fry until golden.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  4. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Floury potato
Provides starch that thickens the mixture as it cooks.
Egg yolks
Enrich the base and help it set as it thickens and cools.
Egg whites
Add structure and help the mixture hold its shape when set.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, giving a softer, smoother texture.
Milk
Adds moisture and loosens the base before it thickens.

The step that matters

Cook on low heat, stirring constantly until thick. Egg proteins can scramble and the base can catch on the bottom if heat is too high or stirring stops. Gentle, constant stirring keeps it smooth and lets the starch and eggs thicken evenly.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, cream, egg, sugar, butter):

  1. Potatothe original
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Leekfits less well
  4. Sweet potatofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, cream, egg, sugar, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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