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Fritters

A batter of flour, water or milk, melted butter, egg whites, and shredded roast beef is fried in lard and served hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Fritters

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 ↓

Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Mix the flour with water or milk to form a smooth batter.

  2. Stir in the melted butter and whisked egg whites.

  3. Add the shredded beef, season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg, and mix well.

Fry and serve

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into boiling lard or dripping.

  2. Drain well from the fat and serve hot.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

All-purpose flour
Forms the batter's main structure once mixed with liquid and sets when fried.
Egg whites
Bind the batter and help the fritters hold their shape and turn light when cooked.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, contributing tenderness and flavour to the batter.
Roast beef
Provides the savoury meaty filling that is distributed through the batter.

The step that matters

Drop spoonfuls into boiling fat. The fat must be hot enough to set the batter quickly on contact. If it is too cool, the fritters absorb oil, turn greasy, and may fall apart before they firm up.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, milk, flour, egg, butter, pepper):

  1. Nutmegthe original
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Cinnamonfits about as well
  4. Tarragonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, milk, flour, egg, butter, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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