Skip to main content
Main

Parsnip Fritters

A fried dish made from boiled and mashed parsnips mixed with flour, egg, and seasoning.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Parsnip and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 669 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Parsnip Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Boil the parsnips until tender, then remove the skin and mash them.

  2. Add the flour and beaten egg to the mashed parsnips and mix well.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat the lard or beef drippings in a frying pan and add the salt.

  2. Once hot, drop spoonfuls of the parsnip mixture into the pan.

  3. Fry until one side is a delicate brown, then turn and cook the other side.

  4. 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. Parsnip + flourtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together669 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Parsnip + beeftop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Flour + beeftop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + beeftop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

Flour and egg 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

Parsnips
Form the bulk of the fritter, giving body and a naturally sweet flavour.
Egg
Binds the mashed parsnip so the fritters hold their shape in the pan.
Flour
Absorbs moisture and helps the mixture hold together while frying.
Lard or beef drippings
Conducts heat for frying and gives the fritters a browned surface and rich flavour.

The step that matters

Frying the spoonfuls. The fat must be hot before the mixture goes in, so the outside sets and browns quickly instead of absorbing grease and turning soggy. Frying on one side until browned before turning helps the fritters keep their shape.

Swap the parsnip

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Parsnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, egg, beef. 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.

You might also like

Roast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCorned BeefCorned Beef87 recipesBeef BrothBeef Broth67 recipes