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Squash Fritters

A fried batter made with milk, salt, baking soda, mashed winter squash, egg, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Winter squash and flour share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 21 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Squash Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Mix milk, salt, and baking soda in a bowl.

  2. Add smoothly mashed squash just before the egg whites.

  3. Beat the mixture until very smooth.

Fry

  1. Heat oil in a pan and fry spoonfuls of the batter 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. Winter squash + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together21 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  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. Milk + winter squashtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

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

Flour
Provides structure so the thick batter holds its shape while frying.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets.
Milk
Adds moisture and helps the batter spread to a smooth, tender texture.
Winter squash
Adds moisture, body, and natural sweetness to the batter.

The step that matters

Frying the batter until golden brown. The oil must be hot enough to brown the outside quickly. If it is too cool, the fritters soak up oil and turn greasy before the centre cooks through.

Swap the winter squash

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Winter squashthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, flour. 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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