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Fritter Batter

A batter of flour, baking powder, salt, eggs, and fruit pieces is fried in lard and dusted with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Fritter Batter

Why it works: Flour and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓

Fritter Batter

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

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

  2. Add the beaten eggs and mix until smooth.

  3. Fold in the fruit pieces.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat lard in a deep pan until boiling.

  2. Drop spoonfuls of the batter into the hot lard.

  3. Fry until golden brown, then drain on a colander.

  4. Dust with fine sugar and serve immediately.

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. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

Flour
Forms the main structure of the batter that holds the fritters together.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the hot fat.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the fritters puff and rise while frying.
Fruit
Adds moisture, sweetness, and flavor inside the fritter.

The step that matters

Frying the batter in hot lard. The lard must be hot enough that the batter sets and browns quickly on the outside. If the fat is too cool, the batter absorbs oil, turns greasy, and cooks unevenly before the centre is done.

“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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