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Tomato Fritters

A fried tomato patty made with tomatoes, onions, breadcrumbs, and spices, served with parsley and catsup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Tomato Fritters

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 ↓

Tomato Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the tomato base

  1. Combine tomatoes, cloves, bay leaves, parsley, cayenne pepper, onion, and bread crumbs in a saucepan.

  2. Cook over medium heat for 10 minutes.

  3. Remove from heat and strain the mixture through a sieve, returning the liquid to the saucepan.

  4. Add sugar, salt, and coconut butter (or olive oil) to the saucepan.

  5. Bring to a boil.

  6. Mix flour with a little cold water to form a smooth paste.

  7. Add the paste to the boiling mixture.

  8. Boil for 2 minutes.

Set and fry

  1. Pour the mixture into a shallow dish.

  2. Let it cool until firm.

  3. Once firm, cut into slices or shapes.

  4. Dip each piece in beaten egg.

  5. Coat with cracker dust.

  6. Fry in hot oil until golden brown.

  7. Garnish with parsley.

  8. Serve with catsup.

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

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

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Clove + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 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

Tomatoes
Provide the main body and flavor of the fritter base.
Flour
Thickens the tomato liquid into a paste that sets firm when cooled.
Bread crumbs
Add body to the mixture, helping it thicken and hold its shape.
Egg
Binds the cut pieces so the cracker dust coating adheres before frying.
Coconut butter or olive oil
Adds fat, contributing richness and smoothness to the base.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the acidity of the tomatoes.

The step that matters

Let it cool until firm. The mixture must set fully before cutting; if it is still soft, the pieces will break apart when dipped and fried. Starch from the flour paste thickens and firms as it cools.

Swap the coconut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, clove, parsley, pepper, onion, bread, sugar):

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Avocadofits better
  4. Coconutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, clove, parsley, pepper, onion, bread, sugar. 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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