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Fried Farina of Corn Meal, Ramequin

A fried farina (polenta) dish made with cornmeal, butter, cheese, and spices, served with fried parsley garnish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Fried Farina of Corn Meal, Ramequin

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Cook the farina according to package instructions.

  2. Remove from heat and stir in butter, Parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, nutmeg, and sugar.

  3. Moisten a pan with cold water and drop spoonfuls of the mixture to spread out.

  4. Place a small amount of grated Parmesan or Gruyere cheese in the center of each spoonful.

  5. Cover each spoonful with a thin layer of the mixture and let cool.

  6. Cut out round shapes using a cutter.

Fry and serve

  1. Dip each piece in beaten eggs and then in bread crumbs.

  2. Heat clarified butter in a frying pan and fry the pieces until golden brown on both sides.

  3. Serve on a napkin with fried parsley as a garnish.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Farina
Forms the soft cooked base that sets as it cools, giving the rounds their body.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that makes the mixture tender and carries flavour.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savoury flavour and salty depth to the mixture and the cheese filling.
Eggs
Bind the breaded coating so it sticks to the pieces and browns evenly when fried.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp golden crust during frying, contrasting with the soft interior.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool before cutting and dipping. Starch in the farina sets as it cools, so the spoonfuls firm up enough to hold their round shape. Cutting or breading them while still hot and soft can make them tear or fall apart in the pan.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, parmesan cheese, pepper, nutmeg, sugar, egg, bread):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Clovefits about as well
  4. Marjoramfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, parmesan cheese, pepper, nutmeg, sugar, egg, bread. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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