Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Hominy Fritters
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Beat the eggs and salt together.
Mix in the boiled hominy and milk.
Sift the baking powder into the flour and add it to the mixture.
Fry and serve
Drop spoonfuls of the batter into hot lard.
Fry until golden brown.
Serve with lemon sauce.
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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Flour + milktop 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).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure as they set in the hot lard.
- Flour
- Provides the main structure that holds the fritters together while frying.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, helping the fritters puff and turn light.
- Milk
- Loosens the batter to a dropping consistency and adds moisture.
- Boiled hominy
- Forms the body of the fritters and adds its own texture to the batter.
The step that matters
Frying in hot lard. If the lard is not hot enough, the batter absorbs fat and turns greasy and dense instead of browning quickly. Drop the batter in carefully so the pan stays hot and the fritters brown evenly.
“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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