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Mince Meat Fritters

Mince meat fritters are fried patties made with minced meat, breadcrumbs or flour, eggs, lemon juice, and lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,662 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Mince Meat Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, mix the mince meat, bread crumbs (or flour), beaten eggs, and lemon juice until well combined.

  2. Heat plenty of lard in a frying pan over medium heat.

Fry and serve

  1. Drop small spoonfuls of the mixture into the hot lard.

  2. Fry for 7 to 8 minutes until golden brown.

  3. Drain on a napkin and 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.

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. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  2. Meat + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  4. Bread + lemontop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,445 recipes

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

  5. Meat + eggtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,432 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Egg and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 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

Mince meat
Forms the main body and flavour of each fritter.
Eggs
Bind the mixture together and help it set when fried.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the fritters body so they hold their shape.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich meat flavour.

The step that matters

Dropping the mixture into hot lard. Spoonfuls dropped into lard that is not hot enough absorb excess fat and turn greasy, while lard that is too hot browns the outside before the centre cooks. Medium heat gives even cooking.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Datesfits better
  3. Pumpkinfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, bread, egg. 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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