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
Remove the kernels from the corn and score them.
In a bowl, mix the corn, eggs, flour, baking soda, milk, butter, and salt until well combined.
Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto a greased pan or griddle.
Fry until golden brown on both sides.
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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Flour + buttertop 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).
Flour and butter 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
- Adds sweetness, moisture and bulk to the batter.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and help set the fritters as they cook.
- Flour
- Provides structure so the fritters hold their shape.
- Baking soda
- Releases gas that lightens the batter and helps the fritters rise.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and loosens the batter to a drop-able consistency.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and helps the surface brown.
The step that matters
Fry until golden brown on both sides. If the pan is too hot, the outside browns before the centre sets, leaving the fritter raw inside. If it is too cool, the batter absorbs fat and turns greasy. Medium heat lets the centre cook through while the surface 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.
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