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Cheese Fritters

Cheese fritters are fried batter with ham and cheese, served hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Cheese Fritters

Why it works: Butter and cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,962 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cheese Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the paste

  1. Combine butter, salt, pepper, and water in a saucepan.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Once boiling, add flour and stir to form a stiff paste.

  4. Cook the paste for 5 minutes over heat.

  5. Remove from heat and let cool.

Make the batter

  1. Gradually add beaten eggs, mixing well after each addition.

  2. Stir in grated cheese and chopped ham.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat oil in a pan.

  2. Drop tablespoonfuls of the mixture into the hot oil.

  3. Increase the heat gradually and turn the fritters frequently until they double in size and turn brown.

  4. Remove the fritters from oil and drain on kitchen paper.

  5. Serve 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.

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.

  1. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Ham + cheesetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together303 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + hamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

Flour
Forms the stiff paste that gives the fritters their body and structure.
Eggs
Bind the paste and help the fritters puff and set as they cook.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the paste, softening its texture.
Cheese
Adds savoury flavour and helps the fritters brown.

The step that matters

Increase the heat gradually and turn the fritters frequently. Starting the oil too hot browns the outside before the centre cooks, while frequent turning lets the fritters puff evenly and brown on all sides.

“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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