Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Aerated Corn Fritters
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Mix corn and cream in a bowl.
Beat the yolks and whites of the eggs separately.
Stir in the beaten eggs, flour, salt, sugar, and oil until combined.
If the batter is too thick, add a little milk to reach a medium thickness.
Fry and serve
Heat oil in a frying pan, enough to cover the batter when dropped in.
Drop spoonfuls of batter into the hot oil.
Turn the fritters when browned using a knife.
Fritters will rise and become aerated.
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.
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,165 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cream + flourtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,481 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- Whites beaten separately and folded in trap air, helping the fritters rise and become light.
- Flour
- Provides starch and gluten that set the batter and give the fritters their body.
- Cream
- Adds fat and moisture, making the batter richer and more tender.
- Corn
- Supplies the main flavor and moist, sweet pieces throughout the fritters.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown in the hot oil.
The step that matters
Drop spoonfuls into hot oil, then turn when browned. The oil must be hot enough to cover the batter so the outside sets and browns quickly, trapping steam that makes the fritters rise. Turning too early, before a firm brown crust forms, can tear them apart and leave them greasy and dense.
“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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