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Corn Fritters

Corn fritters are fried corn cakes made with corn, milk, flour, egg, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Corn Fritters

Why it works: Corn and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,955 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓

Corn Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Combine corn, milk, egg yolk, salt, pepper, and flour in a bowl and mix well.

  2. Beat the egg white until stiff.

  3. Gently fold the beaten egg white and baking powder into the mixture.

Fry

  1. Heat lard or drippings in a saucepan.

  2. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into the hot fat.

  3. Fry until brown on one side.

  4. Turn the fritters and fry until the other side is brown.

Drain and serve

  1. Remove with a skimmer.

  2. Drain on paper.

  3. 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  2. Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,324 recipes

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

  3. Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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
Forms the main structure that holds the fritter together while it fries.
Egg
Binds the batter, and the whipped white adds lightness to the fritter.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the fritters rise and become airy.
Milk
Adds moisture and helps form a smooth, pourable batter.
Corn
Provides sweetness, moisture and texture within the fritter.
Lard or drippings
Conducts heat for frying and promotes browning and a crisp surface.

The step that matters

Frying in hot fat. The fat must be hot before the batter goes in. Hot fat sets and browns the outside quickly, which limits oil absorption and keeps the fritters from sticking or turning 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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