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Salsify Fritters

A batter of flour, eggs, milk, grated salsify, and salt is fried in butter and lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Salsify Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Beat the yolks of the eggs until thick.

  2. Gradually add the milk and flour, then mix in the grated salsify and salt.

  3. Whisk the egg whites until stiff and fold them into the mixture.

Fry

  1. Heat a pan with a mix of hot butter and lard.

  2. Drop spoonfuls of the batter into the pan and fry until light brown on both sides.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 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

Flour
Provides the body that holds the batter together as the fritters set.
Eggs
Yolks enrich and bind the batter, while whipped whites add lightness and rise.
Milk
Hydrates the flour and loosens the batter to a spoonable consistency.
Salsify
Adds its own vegetable flavor and moisture to the fritter mixture.
Butter and lard
Conduct heat in the pan and promote browning on the fritter surfaces.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whisked whites trap air that gives the fritters lift. Stirring them in vigorously knocks that air out, leaving dense fritters, so fold gently until just combined.

“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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