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Cheese Fritters

Cheese fritters are small fried cakes made with flour, cheese, mustard, milk, egg whites, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Cheese Fritters

Why it works: Cheese and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,426 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cheese Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, beat together the flour, mustard, milk, and salt.

  2. Gently fold in the grated cheese and the stiffly beaten egg whites.

Fry and serve

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into boiling fat.

  2. Fry until golden brown, then drain on a napkin and serve.

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. Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Cheese + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,805 recipes

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

  3. Flour + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,066 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they lighten the batter and help the fritters puff and stay airy.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the batter together while it fries.
Grated cheese
Adds rich flavor and melts into the batter, giving a savory taste and soft texture.
Milk
Provides the liquid that hydrates the flour and loosens the batter.
Prepared mustard
Adds sharp, tangy flavor that balances the richness of the cheese.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Stiffly beaten whites hold air bubbles that make the fritters light. Folding gently keeps those bubbles intact, while stirring vigorously would deflate them and leave the fritters dense.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, cheese, milk, egg. 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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