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Beef Feitters

A fried batter of leftover roast beef, flour, water, butter, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beef Feitters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Mix the flour with the water until smooth.

  2. Stir in the melted butter, then add the whisked egg whites just before using.

  3. If the batter is too thick, add more water.

Prepare the beef

  1. Cut the cold beef into thin shreds and season with pepper and salt.

  2. Mix the beef with the batter.

Fry and serve

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into a pan of hot lard.

  2. Fry for 7 to 10 minutes, turning to brown both sides.

  3. Let them dry for a minute before serving on a folded napkin.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  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
Forms the batter body that holds the beef together as the fritters set.
Egg whites
Whisked whites add lightness and help the fritters puff and hold their shape.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness to the batter.
Leftover cold roast beef
Provides the meat and main flavour of the fritters.

The step that matters

Drop the batter into hot lard. If the lard is not hot enough, the fritters absorb grease and turn heavy instead of crisping quickly on the outside. Hot fat sets the outer batter fast, so the inside stays light.

“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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