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Batter for Fish, Meat, Fritters, &C.

A light batter made with flour, salt, oil, beer, vinegar or wine, and egg whites for frying fish, meat, or fritters.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Beer and vinegar work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 302 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, fruity. The science ↓

Batter for Fish, Meat, Fritters, &C.

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, combine the flour and salt.

  2. Add the oil, beer, vinegar or wine, and beaten egg whites.

  3. Mix until the batter is the thickness of a nutmeg.

Fry

  1. Heat oil or hog's lard in a frying pan.

  2. Drop spoonfuls of batter into the hot oil and fry until golden.

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. Beer + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together302 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  2. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + beertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together781 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + vinegartop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,652 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Vinegar + eggtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,922 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Flour and egg 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

Fine flour
Forms the main structure of the batter once it is mixed with liquid.
Egg whites
Add structure and help the batter set and hold its shape when fried.
Beer
Supplies the liquid that hydrates the flour and loosens the batter to the right thickness.
Vinegar or white wine
Adds a little acidity that contributes to a light, crisp coating.
Oil
Adds fat that helps the batter fry crisp and golden.

The step that matters

Frying the batter in hot oil. If the oil is not hot enough, the batter absorbs oil and turns greasy instead of crisping quickly. Hot oil sets the outside of the batter fast, so it becomes crisp and golden rather than soggy.

“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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