Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Cake Fritters
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Soak the square pieces of stale cake in sweet cider.
In a bowl, mix flour, milk, eggs, and baking powder to create a batter.
Fry
Dip the soaked cake pieces into the batter.
Fry the battered pieces in hot lard 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.
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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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Cider + milktop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together342 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Cider + flourtop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together812 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Stale cake
- Provides the core of each fritter, with its crumb absorbing the cider and batter.
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the batter that coats the cake and sets into a crisp shell when fried.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and help it set around the cake while frying.
- Milk
- Thins the flour and eggs into a coating batter with a tender interior.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, lightening the coating as it fries.
- Sweet cider
- Moistens the stale cake and adds fruity sweetness to the fritters.
The step that matters
Fry in hot lard until golden brown. If the lard is not hot enough, the batter absorbs fat and turns greasy before it sets. Hot oil seals the coating quickly, giving a crisp, browned exterior while the inside heats through.
“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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