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 ↓
Plain Fritters
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a bowl, combine eggs, baking powder, and sweet milk.
Gradually add flour until the batter is stiff.
Fry and serve
Heat lard in a deep pan.
Drop spoonfuls of batter into the hot lard.
Fry until golden brown, like doughnuts.
Serve hot with maple syrup.
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.
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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 + maple syruptop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together798 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Flour + maple syruptop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,034 recipes
Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).
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 in the hot fat.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, helping the fritters rise and turn light.
- Sweet milk
- Hydrates the flour and gives the batter its liquid base and tenderness.
- Flour
- Forms the stiff batter's structure, which holds its shape while frying.
The step that matters
Frying in hot lard. If the lard is not hot enough, the batter absorbs fat and turns greasy and heavy instead of browning quickly. Enough heat sets the outside fast, so the fritter stays light inside and browns evenly.
“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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