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Salsify Fritters

Salsify fritters are fried cakes made from mashed salsify, butter, cream, flour, egg, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Salsify Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Boil the salsify until very tender and mash it until smooth.

  2. Season with pepper, coarse sea salt, butter, and cream.

  3. Add flour and a well-beaten egg to the mashed salsify.

Shape and fry

  1. Let the mixture cool, then form it into small cakes.

  2. Roll the cakes in flour and fry them in hot butter or drippings 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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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

Large egg
Binds the mashed salsify so the cakes hold their shape.
All-purpose flour
Absorbs moisture and gives the coated cakes a golden, crisp surface when fried.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor, and browns the outside of the fritters when frying.
Cream
Adds moisture and softness to the mashed salsify mixture.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool before forming the cakes. A warm, soft mash is hard to shape and may slump or stick. Cooling lets the egg and flour set the mixture slightly so the cakes hold together in the hot fat.

“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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