Why it works: Purslane and lemon share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 16 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Fried Purslane a LA Milanaise
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the purslane
Lay purslane on a dish with cinnamon.
Dust the purslane with caster sugar.
Squeeze lemon juice over the purslane.
Let the purslane steep for a few hours.
Make the batter
Beat eggs with milk.
Stir in enough flour to make a stiff batter.
Fry and drain
Heat lard or clarified fat in a flat stewpan until blue smoke rises.
Dip the purslane in the batter.
Fry the battered purslane in the boiling fat over moderate heat.
Drain the cooked purslane on kitchen paper for a minute.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Purslane + lemontop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together16 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together7,950 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Purslane + flourtop 9% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together11 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and help it set into a coating around the purslane when fried.
- Flour
- Thickens the egg and milk mixture into a stiff batter that clings to the purslane.
- Milk
- Thins the eggs into a batter that coats evenly and adds moisture to the coating.
- Caster sugar
- Sweetens the purslane and adds flavour to the dish.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the sweet, spiced purslane.
- Lard or clarified fat
- Conducts heat to fry the batter, browning and crisping its outside.
The step that matters
Frying at the right heat. The fat must be hot enough that the batter sets and browns quickly. If it is too cool, the coating absorbs fat and turns greasy, and if it is too hot the outside burns before the inside cooks through.
Flavor stand-ins for the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (purslane, cinnamon, sugar, egg, milk, flour):
- Raisinbetter flavor fit
- Vanillaabout as good a flavor fit
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against purslane, cinnamon, sugar, egg, milk, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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