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Fritter Batter

A batter for making fritters, made with pastry flour, salt, eggs, milk or water, oil or butter, and whipped egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Fritter Batter

Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Fritter Batter

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Sift together the pastry flour and salt.

  2. Beat the egg yolks until light, then add the milk or water.

  3. Gradually stir the liquid into the flour to make a smooth batter.

  4. Add the olive oil or melted butter to the batter.

  5. Whip the egg whites to a stiff froth and fold into the batter.

  6. Set the batter aside in a cool place for at least two hours.

Fry the cases

  1. Heat a kettle of hot fat and warm the timbale iron in it.

  2. Dip the hot iron into the batter to cover about three-quarters of the mold.

  3. Immerse the iron in the hot fat until lightly browned.

  4. Remove from fat, drain, and tap the handle to detach the cooked case.

  5. Adjust the batter consistency with flour or water if needed.

  6. Use the cases immediately or set aside to rewarm and fill before serving.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Milk + olivetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,828 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Pastry flour
Forms the structure of the batter as the main dry ingredient.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the batter into a smooth mixture.
Egg whites
Whipped to a stiff froth, they lighten the batter and help the fried case puff.
Milk or water
Hydrates the flour and sets the batter's fluidity for coating the iron.
Olive oil or melted butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the batter and contributes to browning and flavor.

The step that matters

Immersing the iron in the hot fat. The fat must be hot enough to set and brown the batter quickly; if it is too cool, the batter absorbs fat and turns greasy and heavy rather than forming a crisp, light case.

“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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