Skip to main content
Dessert

Gooseberry Fritters

A batter‑coated gooseberry fried in fat.

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

Why it works: Flour and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Gooseberry Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Sift the flour into a bowl and add the salt.

  2. Gradually mix in the egg yolks, cream, and water to form a smooth batter.

  3. In a separate bowl, beat the egg white until stiff peaks form.

  4. Gently fold the beaten egg white into the batter.

Fry

  1. Heat the frying fat in a pan.

  2. Dip the gooseberries into the batter and fry until golden brown.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  3. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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 structure of the batter that coats and holds the fruit.
Egg white
Whipped to stiff peaks, it lightens the batter and helps it puff when fried.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the batter into a smooth coating.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the batter a softer texture.
Large gooseberries
The main fruit, whose tart juice contrasts with the sweet, golden batter.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg white. Stiff egg white holds air that gives the fritters lightness. Vigorous stirring knocks that air out, leaving a dense coating, so fold gently with a spatula until just combined.

“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.

You might also like

White CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesSpice CakeSpice Cake344 recipes