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Parsnip Fritters

A fried batter of mashed parsnips, milk, flour, eggs, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Parsnip Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Boil the parsnips until tender, then mash them.

  2. In a bowl, mix the milk or cream with the flour, eggs, and salt.

  3. Add the mixture to the mashed parsnips and stir in the butter.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry spoonfuls of the mixture in butter or dripping until golden brown.

  2. Serve very hot.

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 + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Parsnip + flourtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together669 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Parsnips
Provide the main bulk and a sweet, earthy flavour for the fritters.
Eggs
Bind the mixture together and help the fritters set when fried.
Flour
Thickens the batter so it holds its shape in the pan.
Milk or cream
Adds moisture and softness to the mixture.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the outside brown when frying.

The step that matters

Fry spoonfuls until golden brown. The fritters need enough hot fat and time to brown on the outside and set through the middle. Frying in a cool pan or crowding the pan makes them greasy and pale, and they may fall apart.

Swap the parsnip

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, flour, egg, butter):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Parsnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, flour, egg, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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