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 ↓
Fritter Batter
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Mix the flour, salt, and sugar together.
Separate the eggs and beat the yolks until creamy.
Add the milk to the yolks and pour into the flour mixture.
Melt the butter and stir it in.
Beat well and fold in the beaten egg whites.
Fry the fritters
Dip slices of apples in the batter, covering them well.
Fry in a bath of hot fat, being careful not to break the apple slices.
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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 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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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 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
- Flour
- Forms the structure of the batter that coats and holds the apple slices.
- Eggs
- Yolks enrich the batter, and whipped whites are folded in to lighten its texture.
- Milk
- Loosens the batter to a coating consistency and adds moisture.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, contributing flavor and tenderness to the batter.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the fritters brown in the hot fat.
The step that matters
Fry in a bath of hot fat without breaking the apple slices. The fat must be hot enough to set the batter quickly, forming a crisp crust before it turns greasy. Handling the coated slices gently keeps the batter and apple intact.
“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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