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Dessert

Strawberry Fritters

A batter of flour, sweet oil, white wine, lemon peel, and egg whites is folded with strawberries and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: White wine and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,832 recipes. Both carry myrcene, which smells balsamic, herbaceous. The science ↓

Strawberry Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Make a batter with flour, sweet oil, white wine, grated lemon peel, and egg whites.

  2. Mix until soft enough to drop with a spoon.

  3. Fold in large strawberries.

Fry and serve

  1. Drop spoonfuls into hot oil and fry until golden.

  2. Remove and drain on a sieve.

  3. Sprinkle with sugar or glaze before serving.

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. White wine + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  2. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

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

Egg whites
Whipped or beaten whites add lightness and help the batter puff and hold its shape when fried.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the batter together around the strawberries.
White wine
Adds moisture and acidity to the batter, helping it stay light and aromatic.
Large strawberries
Supply the fruit flavour and juicy centre that contrasts with the crisp golden coating.

The step that matters

Drop spoonfuls into hot oil and fry until golden. If the oil is not hot enough, the batter absorbs oil and becomes greasy instead of crisp. Frying in small batches keeps the oil temperature steady so the fritters brown evenly.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, white wine, egg, sugar):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Figfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, white wine, egg, sugar. 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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