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Parsnip Fritters

Parsnip fritters are small flat cakes made from mashed parsnips, egg, butter, salt, and pepper, then fried until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsnip and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,109 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Parsnip Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the parsnips

  1. Wash and scrape the parsnips, then cut them into slices.

  2. Cover the slices with boiling water and cook until tender.

  3. Mash the cooked parsnips through a colander.

Make the mixture

  1. Return the mashed parsnips to the heat, add butter, salt, pepper, and the beaten egg.

  2. Mix thoroughly, then remove from heat and let cool.

Fry and serve

  1. Form the mixture into small flat cakes and fry in a little butter until golden brown.

  2. Serve hot.

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. Parsnip + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,109 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Parsnip + buttertop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,051 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-pinene (pine, resin).

  5. Parsnip + eggtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together442 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Parsnips
Form the bulk of the fritters and give them their sweet, earthy flavour.
Egg
Binds the mashed parsnips so the mixture holds its shape when formed into cakes.
Butter
Adds richness to the mixture and helps the cakes brown in the pan.

The step that matters

Cooling the mixture before forming cakes. A warm, loose mash is hard to shape and may slump in the pan. Letting it cool lets it firm up, and the egg sets as the mixture cools and is handled, so the cakes keep their shape while frying.

Swap the parsnip

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Parsnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, egg. 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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