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Squash Fritters

Squash fritters are fried batter made with mashed squash, milk, eggs, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,623 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Squash Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, combine the mashed squash, milk, and eggs.

  2. Add salt, nutmeg, and baking soda, mixing well.

  3. Gradually add flour until the batter reaches a pourable consistency.

  4. Stir in a little sugar to taste.

Fry

  1. Heat oil in a pan and drop spoonfuls of batter to fry until golden brown.

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. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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
Bind the batter and add structure as they set when fried.
Flour
Provides the body that lets the batter hold its shape in the pan.
Baking soda
Reacts with the batter to lighten it and help the fritters rise.
Squash
Adds moisture and bulk, giving the fritters a soft, tender interior.
Milk
Adds liquid that loosens the batter and promotes browning from its milk sugars.

The step that matters

Frying until golden brown. Drop the batter into hot oil so the outside sets and browns before the inside cooks through. Batter added to oil that is too cool absorbs oil and turns greasy and dense.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Jalapenofits less well
  4. Turmericfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, flour, sugar. 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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