Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Corn Fritters
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Beat the eggs until light.
Add salt, melted butter, and cream or milk to the eggs.
Stir in the grated corn and enough flour to hold the mixture together.
Season with pepper and test the mixture for consistency.
Fry
Heat lard in a pan and drop spoonfuls of the mixture to fry until golden brown.
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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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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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).
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Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,345 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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 mixture and set into a firm, tender structure when fried.
- Grated corn
- Provides the main flavor and bulk of the fritter.
- Flour
- Adds body so the mixture holds together in spoonfuls.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat for richness and a softer, more tender crumb.
- Cream or milk
- Adds moisture that loosens the batter and softens the texture.
The step that matters
Stir in the flour gradually. Too much flour makes the fritters dense and tough, while too little leaves them loose and likely to fall apart in the hot fat. Adding flour until the mixture just holds together gives a light, cohesive fritter.
“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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