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Proportions for Frying Batter

A batter made of flour, egg yolk, oil, milk, water, and seasonings, folded with beaten egg whites for crisp frying.

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

Proportions for Frying Batter

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Mix flour, egg yolk, salad oil, and milk in a bowl until smooth.

  2. Add water, pepper, and salt.

  3. Let the mixture sit for several hours or overnight.

  4. Whisk egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff peaks form.

  5. Gently fold the beaten egg whites into the batter.

Fry

  1. Dip pieces of meat, vegetables, or fruit into the batter.

  2. Drop the coated pieces into boiling fat.

  3. Fry until dry and crisp.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26,984 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

Flour
Forms the structure of the batter that coats and sets around the food.
Egg whites
Beaten to stiff peaks, they add lightness and help the batter puff and crisp.
Egg yolk
Adds richness and helps emulsify the batter for a smooth, cohesive coating.
Milk
Adds moisture and helps the batter spread into a smooth, even coating.
Salad oil
Adds fat that contributes to a tender, crisp texture in the finished coating.

The step that matters

Fold the beaten egg whites in gently. Stiff egg whites trap air that gives the batter its lift. Vigorous stirring knocks that air out, leaving a denser, less airy coating after frying.

“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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