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Frying Batter

A light batter made from flour, milk, butter, salt, and folded egg whites, used for frying.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Frying Batter

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Sift the flour into a bowl.

  2. Add a pinch of salt.

  3. Stir in the lukewarm milk and warmed butter. Mix well with a wooden spoon.

  4. Let the batter stand for at least 1 hour.

Finish and use

  1. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks.

  2. Gently fold the egg whites into the batter.

  3. Use the batter as needed.

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. 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
Provides the structure that holds the batter together as it cooks.
Egg whites
Beaten to stiff peaks, they add lightness and help the batter puff when fried.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, contributing flavour and a tender texture.
Milk
Hydrates the flour to form a smooth, pourable batter.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Stiffly beaten whites hold air that gives lightness. Folding gently keeps that air in; stirring vigorously deflates the foam and produces a denser, flatter batter.

“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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