Name: Fritters, Savoury
Ingredients: Cold meat of any description; Mashed potato; Salt; Pepper; Frying batter; Frying fat

Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fritters, Savoury

Ingredients

Directions

Cut the cold meat into rounds about 2 to 3 inches in diameter.
Season the mashed potato with salt and pepper, then heat it, adding a little milk until it is moist enough to spread easily.
Cover both sides of the meat rounds with the seasoned potato, smoothing it with a hot, wet knife.
Dip the rounds in frying batter or coat them with egg and breadcrumbs if preferred.
Fry the coated rounds in hot fat, using a deep pan if available, or ensure a deep layer of fat in a frying pan for even cooking.

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.

Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Meat + potatotop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together786 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Meat + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,777 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).