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Baking

Pate a Frire — Frying Batter

A batter of flour, water, olive oil, egg yolks, and salt, folded with beaten egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Pate a Frire — Frying Batter

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Dilute the flour with water, olive oil, and egg yolks.

  2. Add a pinch of salt and beat to a smooth paste.

Finish the batter

  1. Before using, beat the egg whites to a stiff froth.

  2. Incorporate the egg whites with the batter.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + olivetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,871 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Olive + eggtop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,340 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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 once it is mixed with liquid.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the batter into a smooth, cohesive paste.
Egg whites
Beaten to a stiff froth and folded in, they make the batter light and airy.
Olive oil
Adds fat that tenderizes the batter and contributes moisture.

The step that matters

Incorporate the egg whites with the batter. Beaten egg whites hold air, which lightens the batter. Folding gently keeps that air in; vigorous stirring deflates the foam and leaves a dense coating.

“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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