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Corn Fritters

Corn fritters are deep‑fried corn kernels mixed with egg, milk, flour, 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

Prepare the batter

  1. Score the corn down the center of each row of grains and press out the pulp with a blunt knife, leaving the hull on the cob.

  2. In a bowl, combine the corn pulp, milk, salt, pepper, egg yolks, and flour. Beat well.

  3. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites to a stiff froth and gently fold in the baking powder.

  4. Carefully mix the egg whites into the corn mixture until thoroughly combined.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat deep lard in a pan.

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

  3. Brown the fritters on one side, then turn and brown on the other.

  4. Remove the fritters with a skimmer and drain on brown paper.

  5. Serve very hot. Do not pierce the fritters with a fork to keep them light.

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. Egg + flourtop 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

Corn
Provides the main body and sweet flavor of the fritter.
Eggs
Egg whites whipped to a froth lighten the batter, and yolks add richness and binding.
Flour
Gives the batter structure so the fritters hold their shape while frying.
Milk
Adds moisture to loosen the batter and soften its texture.
Baking powder
Releases gas during frying, helping the fritters puff and stay light.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whipped egg whites trap air that makes the fritters light. Stirring them in vigorously deflates the foam, leaving dense fritters, so fold gently until just combined.

“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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