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Parsnip Fritters

A fried cake made from boiled parsnips, flour, eggs, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsnip and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 669 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Parsnip Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the parsnips

  1. Scrape and cut the parsnips if large.

  2. Boil the parsnips in well-salted water until tender.

Shape the cakes

  1. Mash the parsnips and mix in flour, beaten eggs, pepper, and salt.

  2. Form the mixture into small cakes, about ¾ inch thick and 2½ inches in diameter.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry the cakes in a sauté pan with hot butter until golden brown on both sides.

  2. Serve hot.

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. Parsnip + flourtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together669 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Parsnip + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,109 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Flour and butter 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

Parsnips
Form the bulk of the cakes, providing starch, sweetness and body once mashed.
Eggs
Bind the mashed parsnips together so the cakes hold their shape when fried.
Flour
Absorbs moisture and helps the mixture hold together during shaping and frying.
Butter
Conducts heat in the pan and browns the outside of the cakes, adding flavour.

The step that matters

Fry the cakes until golden brown on both sides. The cakes are soft and held together mainly by egg and flour, so they need enough hot butter and steady heat to set and brown. Frying too cool makes them greasy and fragile, while pushing the heat too high can scorch the outside before the centre is hot through.

Swap the parsnip

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, egg, pepper, butter):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Parsnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, egg, pepper, butter. 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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