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 ↓
Wheat Fritters
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Mix three eggs, one and a half cups of milk, three teaspoonfuls of baking powder, salt, and flour until stiff and thicker than batter cakes.
Drop the batter into hot lard and fry until golden, like doughnuts.
Make the sauce and serve
Combine one cup of sugar, two tablespoonfuls of butter, one teaspoonful of flour, and half a cup of boiling water; flavor with lemon extract and boil until clear.
Serve the fritters with the clear sauce or maple syrup if desired.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Milk | 1 cup (244ml) whole | 149 |
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Egg | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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. See the original page.
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.
-
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
-
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour 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
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure as they set during frying.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, helping the fritters puff and lighten.
- Flour
- Forms the starch and protein network that gives the batter its body.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and loosens the batter to a workable thickness.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the fritters and, when boiled, thickens the sauce into a clear syrup.
The step that matters
Drop the batter into hot lard and fry until golden. Hot fat sets the outside of the batter quickly, so the fritter browns and forms a crust instead of soaking up grease. If the lard is too cool, the fritters absorb more fat and turn heavy.
“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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