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Plain Fritters

A batter of buttermilk, sweet milk, eggs, baking soda, and flour is fried in lard to make light brown fritters.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Buttermilk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Plain Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, combine buttermilk, sweet milk, and eggs.

  2. Stir in baking soda and enough flour to create a thick batter.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat lard in a skillet until boiling hot.

  2. Drop spoonfuls of batter into the hot lard and fry until light brown.

  3. Serve with liquid sauce or molasses.

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. Buttermilk + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  5. Buttermilk + eggtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,986 recipes

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

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

Buttermilk or sour milk
Its acidity reacts with the baking soda so the batter rises and turns tender.
Eggs
They bind the batter and add structure and richness to the fritters.
Baking soda
It reacts with the acidic buttermilk to release gas, leavening the batter.
Flour
It thickens the batter and gives the fritters their body and structure.
Lard
It conducts heat for frying and gives the outside a crisp, browned surface.

The step that matters

Heat the lard until boiling hot before frying. Batter dropped into fat that is not hot enough soaks up grease and turns heavy. Hot fat sets the outside quickly, so the fritters brown lightly and stay less greasy.

“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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