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 ↓
Corn Fritters
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the batter
Boil and grate the corn.
In a bowl, mix the grated corn with beaten eggs, milk, salt, pepper, and butter.
Add enough flour to create a batter.
Fry
Heat lard or butter in a skillet.
Drop spoonfuls of batter into the hot fat and cook until golden, turning as needed.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Corn + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,324 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,165 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
- Corn
- Provides the bulk and sweet flavour of the fritters.
- Eggs
- Bind the grated corn and help the fritters hold their shape.
- Milk
- Adds moisture so the batter stays loose and tender.
- Flour
- Thickens the mixture into a batter that holds together in the pan.
- Lard or butter
- Fries the batter, promoting browning and a crisp golden surface.
The step that matters
Drop spoonfuls into hot fat. If the fat is not hot enough, the batter absorbs oil and turns greasy instead of browning quickly. Fritters cooked in properly hot fat brown on the outside while the inside sets.
“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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