Why it works: Milk and flour 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 ↓
Fritters
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a bowl, combine the milk, eggs, and salt.
Gradually add flour until the mixture forms a thick batter.
Beat the batter well to incorporate air.
Fry
Drop spoonfuls of the batter into hot lard and fry until golden brown.
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.
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and flour 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
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure as they set when fried.
- Flour
- Gives the batter body and structure so it holds together in the fat.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that hydrates the flour and keeps the batter moist.
- Lard
- Conducts heat to cook the fritters and promotes browning on the surface.
The step that matters
Drop spoonfuls of the batter into hot lard and fry until golden brown.. If the lard is not hot enough, the batter absorbs fat instead of crisping, leading to greasy fritters. Frying at a steady high heat sets the outside quickly and drives browning.
“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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