Why it works: Butter and flour 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 ↓
Golden-ball Fritters
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
In a saucepan, bring 1 pint of water to a boil.
Add ½ cup of butter and 1 tablespoon of sugar, stirring until melted.
Stir in 1 pint of sifted flour quickly and thoroughly.
Remove from heat and let cool slightly.
Beat in 6 eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Fry and serve
Drop spoonfuls of the dough into boiling lard.
Stir the lard to create a whirlpool effect for round fritters.
Serve with syrup or melted sugar and butter.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Butter and flour 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
- Flour
- Forms the structure of the dough once it is stirred in and cooked.
- Eggs
- Add richness and bind the dough while helping it puff when fried.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness to the dough, giving a tender texture.
The step that matters
Stir the flour in quickly and thoroughly. Flour stirred into hot liquid must be mixed fast so it does not form lumps. Cooking the starch in the hot mixture sets the structure that later holds the fritter's shape.
“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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