Skip to main content
Baking

German Frying Batter

A batter made with flour, butter, egg yolk, water, salt, mild ale, and egg white, used for frying.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

German Frying Batter

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Mix flour, melted butter, egg yolk, and water in a bowl.

  2. Add a pinch of salt and gradually stir in the mild ale until smooth.

  3. Beat the mixture with a wooden spoon until well blended.

  4. Let the batter rest for 2 to 3 hours before using.

Finish and fry

  1. Just before frying, fold in the beaten egg white until combined.

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 + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 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. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

All-purpose flour
Forms the main structure of the batter as its proteins and starches set when fried.
Egg yolk
Adds richness and helps bind the batter so it coats evenly.
Mild ale
Adds liquid and a little carbonation that helps the batter puff up lightly.
Egg white
Whipped into the batter just before frying to add lightness and airiness.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg white just before frying. Beaten egg white traps air that gives a light, crisp coating. If it is folded in too early or stirred vigorously, it deflates and the batter becomes dense.

“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

Delicate CakeDelicate Cake246 recipesBoiled FrostingBoiled Frosting69 recipesCitron CakeCitron Cake68 recipesScotch CakeScotch Cake63 recipes