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Fried Hops

Fried hops are hops cooked in hot lard after being parboiled, seasoned with lemon juice, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Fried Hops

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prepare the hops as in the previous recipe.

  2. Drain the hops.

  3. Dry the hops on a napkin.

  4. Parboil the hops for 5 minutes.

  5. Immerse the hops in cold water.

  6. Dry the hops again on a napkin.

  7. Combine the hops with lemon juice, salt, and pepper.

  8. Set the mixture aside.

Fry and serve

  1. Drain the hops.

  2. Lightly flour the hops.

  3. Dip the hops in a frying batter.

  4. Fry the hops one at a time in hot lard until cooked.

  5. Drain the fried hops.

  6. Season the hops with salt and pepper.

  7. Serve on a napkin.

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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Lemon + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Hops + flourtop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

  5. Hops + lemontop 40% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Hops
Serve as the main ingredient, becoming tender after parboiling and crisp when fried.
Flour
Lightly coats the hops so the frying batter adheres evenly.
Lard (for frying)
Conducts heat to cook the battered hops and gives them a golden, crisp surface.
Juice of 1 lemon
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor of the hops.

The step that matters

Drain and dry the hops thoroughly before battering. Surface water dilutes the batter and prevents it from sticking, and it spatters and cools the hot lard, so the coating can turn greasy instead of crisp.

“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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