Why it works: Milk and wheat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓
Jelly Fritters
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Make a batter by beating together the eggs, milk, and flour until light.
Fry
Heat the lard or beef fat in a frying pan until boiling hot.
Add the batter by large spoonfuls, leaving space between each.
Fry until one side is a delicate brown, then turn to brown the other side.
Once done, transfer to a dish lined with a doily.
Serve
Top each fritter with a spoonful of firm jelly or jam and serve.
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.
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Milk + wheattop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,418 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Wheat + beeftop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together319 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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Milk + beeftop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,759 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + wheattop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,225 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure as they set during frying.
- Wheat flour
- Provides the starch and gluten that give the fritters their body.
- Milk
- Thins the batter and adds moisture and browning-friendly milk sugars.
- Lard or beef fat
- Conducts heat for frying and gives the fritters a rich flavor and crisp surface.
The step that matters
Heating the fat until boiling hot before adding batter. If the fat is not hot enough, the batter absorbs it and becomes greasy instead of setting quickly with a crisp, golden surface. Hot fat seals the outside immediately.
“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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