Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Corn Fritters
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a bowl, combine the scraped corn, milk, flour, melted butter, beaten eggs, salt, pepper, and baking powder.
Beat the mixture well until smooth.
Fry and drain
Heat oil in a pan and drop spoonfuls of the batter into the hot oil.
Fry until golden brown on both sides, then drain on paper towels.
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.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Corn + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,324 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,165 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 help set the fritters as they cook.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the fritters together.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas that lifts the batter so the fritters puff and stay light.
- Milk
- Hydrates the flour and loosens the batter to a spoonable consistency.
- Scraped corn
- Supplies the main body, sweetness and texture of the fritters.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat for richness and helps the surface brown.
The step that matters
Fry until golden brown on both sides. The oil must be hot when the batter goes in; if it is too cool, the fritters absorb oil and turn greasy instead of crisping. Browning on both sides also means the centre has time to cook through.
“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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