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Beef Fritters

Beef fritters are fried patties made from chopped roast beef, onion juice, milk, flour, egg, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Beef Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Mix the chopped beef and parsley, then season with salt, pepper, and onion juice.

  2. Beat the egg, then add the milk and sifted flour with baking powder.

  3. Combine the batter with the minced beef mixture.

Fry and serve

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into hot fat and fry until brown.

  2. Drain and serve with currant jelly.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the batter's structure once mixed with the liquid and egg.
Egg
Binds the batter and helps hold the fritters together.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the fritters rise and turn light.
Milk
Moistens the flour to form a smooth, pourable batter.
Roast beef
Provides the main savory filling inside the fritters.

The step that matters

Frying spoonfuls in hot fat. If the fat is not hot enough, the batter absorbs oil and turns greasy instead of crisping and browning quickly. Frying until brown sets the outside while the inside cooks through.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

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