Skip to main content
Main

Salsify or Oyster Plant Fritters

Fritters made from mashed salsify root mixed with eggs, milk, butter, flour, and seasonings, then fried in lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Salsify or Oyster Plant Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the salsify

  1. Scrape the salsify root well and cut it into pieces.

  2. Boil the pieces until tender, then mash them finely.

Make the batter

  1. Add the beaten eggs, salt, pepper, butter, and milk to the mashed salsify.

  2. Mix in enough flour to create a batter.

Fry

  1. Dip spoonfuls of the mixture into hot lard and fry until brown.

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.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

Salsify root
Forms the bulk of the fritter and gives it its main flavour.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set when heated, holding the fritters together.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, contributing to a tender interior and flavour.
Milk
Adds moisture that loosens the mash into a workable batter.
Flour
Thickens the batter and gives structure so the fritters hold their shape.
Lard
Conducts heat for frying and browns the outside of the fritters.

The step that matters

Frying the spoonfuls in hot lard. If the lard is not hot enough, the fritters absorb excess fat and turn greasy before the outside sets. Hot fat seals the surface quickly, so the batter holds its shape and browns evenly.

“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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes