Why it works: Butter and milk 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
Prepare the corn
Score each row of corn lengthwise with a sharp knife.
Scrape the kernels from the cob using the back of the knife.
Make and fry the fritters
Beat the eggs into the corn mixture and season with salt and pepper.
If the corn is very dry, add a few tablespoons of milk, but do not add flour.
Heat butter in a frying pan.
Fry spoonfuls of the mixture quickly, 8 to 10 at a time, without burning.
Serve immediately.
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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Butter + milktop 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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Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,324 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,345 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Corn
- Provides the main bulk and sweet flavour of the fritters.
- Eggs
- Bind the corn mixture together and help it set when fried.
- Butter
- Adds richness and helps the fritters brown in the pan.
- Milk
- Adds moisture to dry corn, loosening the mixture slightly.
The step that matters
Fry quickly without burning. Frying in small spoonfuls over steady heat sets the egg and browns the outside before the centre cooks through. Too much heat scorches the butter and sugars in the corn before the inside is set.
“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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