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Plain Fritters. Flap-Jacks.

A fried batter made with eggs, milk, and flour, served with syrup or fruit.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and flour 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 ↓

Plain Fritters. Flap-Jacks.

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Beat the eggs thoroughly and strain them through a fine sieve.

  2. Gradually add the flour and then the milk, beating until the mixture is the consistency of cream.

Fry and serve

  1. Drop small portions of the batter into smoking hot lard.

  2. When lightly colored, turn them and cook until done.

  3. Drain on brown paper and serve with syrup, sugar, lemon, orange, or honey.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + syruptop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,540 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Milk + syruptop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,143 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Milk and flour 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

Eggs
Provide structure and richness, setting the batter as they cook.
Flour
Thickens the batter and gives the fritters body so they hold their shape.
Milk
Thins the batter to a creamy consistency and adds moisture and tenderness.

The step that matters

Dropping the batter into smoking hot lard. If the lard is not hot enough, the batter absorbs fat and turns greasy instead of crisping. Hot fat sets the outside quickly, so the fritters brown lightly and cook through without soaking up oil.

“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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