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Currant Fritters

A batter of eggs, flour, milk, and currants fried in lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Currant Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Whisk the eggs thoroughly.

  2. Gradually mix in the flour and salt until smooth.

  3. Add the milk and stir until well combined.

  4. Stir the currants into the batter.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat lard or dripping in a frying pan.

  2. Drop spoonfuls of the batter into the hot pan, about the size of a small bun.

  3. Cook 3 or 4 fritters at a time, keeping them apart.

  4. When lightly browned on one side, turn them over to brown the other side.

  5. Drain excess fat and serve on a hot napkin.

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. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + curranttop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  4. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  5. Egg + curranttop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,734 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Flour and milk 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 help the fritters set firm when cooked.
All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that thickens the batter and holds the fritters together.
Milk
Thins the batter to a pourable consistency and adds moisture and softness.
Lard or dripping
Conducts heat in the pan and gives the fritters browning and rich flavour.
Currants
Add sweetness and fruity flavour, distributed through the batter.

The step that matters

Keeping the fritters apart in the hot pan. Cooking only three or four at a time leaves room around each one, so the pan stays hot and the fritters brown rather than steam and stick together.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Currantthe original

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