Why it works: Milk and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,759 recipes. Both carry 1-hexanal, which smells fruit. The science ↓
Jelly Fritters
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Make a batter by beating together the eggs, milk, and flour until light.
Fry
Heat the lard or beef fat in a frying pan until boiling hot.
Add the batter by large spoonfuls, leaving space between each.
Cook until one side is a delicate brown, then turn to cook the other side.
Serve
Once done, place on a dish lined with a doily and top each fritter with a dessert spoonful of jelly.
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.
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Milk + beeftop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,759 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Flour + beeftop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together10,677 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 during frying.
- Flour
- Provides the main structure that holds the fritters together.
- Milk
- Thins the batter and adds moisture and tenderness to the fritters.
- Lard or beef fat
- Conducts heat to the batter and gives the fritters a rich flavour and crisp surface.
The step that matters
Heat the fat until boiling hot. If the fat is not hot enough, the batter absorbs it and becomes greasy instead of setting quickly. Very hot fat sets the outside fast so the fritter stays light and browns evenly.
“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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