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Cheese Fritters

Cheese fritters are small fried balls made from grated cheese and egg whites, seasoned with pepper, salt, and cayenne.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Cheese Fritters

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cheese Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. In a bowl, season the grated cheese with pepper, salt, and cayenne.

  2. Gently fold the seasoned cheese into the well-whisked egg whites.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat oil in a deep pan until boiling.

  2. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into the hot oil and fry until golden brown.

  3. Remove from oil and drain excess fat.

  4. Serve with fried parsley and additional grated cheese.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Cheese + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,861 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Cheese + parsleytop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,507 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Egg + cheesetop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,253 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whisked whites trap air and set into a light, tender structure when fried.
Grated cheese
Melts and browns in the hot oil, adding richness and savory flavor.

The step that matters

Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into the hot oil and fry until golden brown. The oil must be boiling so the fritters set and brown quickly on the outside. If the oil is too cool, they absorb excess fat and turn greasy and heavy instead of crisp.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, cheese, pepper):

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Dillfits about as well
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Nutmegfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, cheese, pepper. 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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