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Cheese Fritters

Cheese fritters are fried dough pieces made with water, butter, flour, cheese, eggs, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Cheese Fritters

Why it works: Butter and parmesan cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,163 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Cheese Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. In a saucepan, combine water, butter, cayenne, and black pepper; bring to a boil.

  2. Gradually sift in enough flour to form a thick paste, then remove from heat.

  3. Stir in the ground cheese, followed by the egg yolks and beaten egg whites.

  4. Let the mixture rest for 2 hours.

Fry and serve

  1. Drop walnut-sized pieces into hot fat and fry until golden.

  2. Serve sprinkled with fine salt.

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. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pepper + parmesan cheesetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,322 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Flour
Thickens the boiled butter and water into a paste that holds its shape.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savory flavor and body to the batter.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the mixture.
Egg whites
Whipped structure that lightens the batter and helps the fritters puff.
Butter
Adds richness and a tender, moist texture.

The step that matters

Drop walnut-sized pieces into hot fat and fry until golden.. If the fat is not hot enough, the fritters absorb oil and turn greasy instead of crisping. Frying in small pieces lets the centers cook through while the outside browns.

“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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