Why it works: Corn and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,955 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓
Corn Fritters
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the batter
Scrape the corn from the cobs.
In a bowl, mix the corn, milk, beaten egg, salt, pepper, and enough flour to make a stiff batter. Add 1 teaspoon of baking powder for each cup of flour used.
Fry and drain
Drop spoonfuls of the batter into deep boiling lard, ensuring the lard is deep enough to float the fritters.
If the fritters spread too much, add a little more flour.
Fry until they puff up like doughnuts, then drain on paper or a folded napkin.
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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Corn + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,324 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,165 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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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).
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
- Corn
- Provides the main bulk and sweet flavour of the fritters.
- Flour
- Gives the batter structure so the fritters hold their shape while frying.
- Egg
- Binds the batter and adds richness and structure as it sets.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during frying so the fritters puff up light.
- Milk
- Moistens the flour to form a batter and adds tenderness.
The step that matters
Frying the batter in deep lard. The batter must be dropped into lard that is hot and deep enough to float the fritters. Heat sets the outside quickly so the baking powder can lift the batter, while cold or shallow fat lets the fritters soak up grease and spread flat.
“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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