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Tomato Fritters

A fried batter of stewed tomatoes, egg, baking soda, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Tomato Fritters

Why it works: Egg and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Tomato Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, combine the stewed tomatoes, egg, and baking soda.

  2. Gradually add flour until the mixture is as stiff as pancake batter.

Fry

  1. Heat lard in a frying pan over medium‑high heat.

  2. Drop spoonfuls of the batter into the hot lard.

  3. 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.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Tomato + flourtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,065 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Tomato + eggtop 34% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,890 recipes

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

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Stewed tomatoes
Provide the main liquid and tomato flavour of the batter.
Egg
Binds the batter together and adds structure as it sets.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic tomatoes to produce gas that lightens the fritters.
Flour
Gives the batter body so it holds its shape in the hot fat.
Lard
Fries the batter, conducting heat and browning the outside.

The step that matters

Drop spoonfuls of the batter into the hot lard. If the lard is not hot enough, the batter absorbs fat and turns greasy and heavy instead of crisping. Adding batter only once the fat is hot sears the outside quickly, so the fritters hold their shape and brown evenly.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, flour. 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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