Skip to main content
Main

Parsnip Prittebs

Parsnip fritters are strips of boiled parsnip coated in a stiff batter and fried in lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Parsnip and nutmeg share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 98 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Parsnip Prittebs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pare the parsnips, cut them into strips about 2 inches long and ¼ inch thick.

  2. Boil the parsnips until tender, then drain and dry them on a clean cloth.

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the flour, egg yolks, salt, pepper, nutmeg, salad oil, and enough water to make a stiff batter.

  2. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks and gently fold them into the batter.

Fry and serve

  1. Dip the parsnip strips into the batter and fry in hot lard 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. Parsnip + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together98 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Parsnip + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,109 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Parsnips
Provide the main body and sweet flavor of the fritters.
Flour
Forms the structure of the batter that coats the parsnip strips.
Eggs
Yolks enrich the batter, while whipped whites lighten its texture.
Lard
Fries the coating, producing a golden brown, crisp exterior.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Whites beaten to stiff peaks trap air that lightens the batter; stirring them in vigorously knocks that air out, leaving dense fritters. Fold gently so the batter stays airy.

Swap the parsnip

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

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Shallotfits about as well
  3. Arrowrootfits about as well
  4. Parsnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, egg, pepper, nutmeg. 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

Parsnip CakesParsnip Cakes12 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipes