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Beef Fritters

A fried dish of shredded roast beef mixed with a flour and butter batter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beef Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Mix the flour smoothly with the water.

  2. Stir in the melted butter.

  3. Just before using, add the whisked egg whites.

  4. If the batter is too thick, add more water.

Prepare the beef

  1. Pare the beef into thin shreds and season with pepper and salt.

  2. Mix the beef with the batter.

Fry and serve

  1. Drop small quantities into a pan of boiling lard.

  2. Fry for 7 to 10 minutes, turning to brown both sides.

  3. Dry briefly before serving on a folded 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. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  5. Butter + eggtop 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
Forms the batter body that holds the beef and sets as it fries.
Egg whites
Whisked in just before use to add lightness and help the fritters puff and hold shape.
Butter
Adds richness and a tender texture to the batter.
Cold roast beef
Provides the main flavour and bulk, cooked again briefly in the hot batter.

The step that matters

Adding the egg whites just before using. Whisked egg whites trap air, which lifts the batter. If they stand too long or are folded in too early, they lose their air and the fritters turn out flatter and denser.

“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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