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Okra Fritters

A fried batter of sliced okra, flour, egg, and liquid.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Okra and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 234 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Okra Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the okra very thin, almost like wafers.

  2. In a bowl, mix the flour, egg, and water or milk to create a batter.

  3. Add the sliced okra and salt to the batter, mixing well.

Fry

  1. Heat oil in a pan over medium-high heat.

  2. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into the hot oil and fry 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. Okra + flourtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together234 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Okra + milktop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

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

All-purpose flour
Forms the batter's structure, holding the okra pieces together while frying.
Egg
Binds the batter and helps the fritters set firmly as they cook.
Okra
Provides the main filling and body, with its slices giving the fritters texture.

The step that matters

Drop spoonfuls into hot oil. Frying in oil that is hot enough sets the outside quickly and browns it, so the batter does not soak up oil and turn greasy.

Swap the okra

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

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Okrathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, egg, 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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