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Parmesan Fritters

A fried cheese patty made with Parmesan and lemon cheese, flour, cream, spices, and egg yolks, served hot with fried parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Parmesan Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cheese mixture

  1. In a saucepan, combine the grated Parmesan and lemon cheese with the flour.

  2. Add the cream or milk, cayenne pepper, black pepper, salt, and mustard.

  3. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens.

  4. Let it cool slightly, then stir in the egg yolks until well combined.

Shape and fry

  1. Shape the mixture into pairs, rounds, or flat shapes.

  2. Dip each piece in egg and breadcrumbs twice.

  3. Fry the fritters in hot lard until golden brown.

  4. Fry parsley in the same lard until golden.

Serve

  1. Serve hot on a napkin, garnished with fried parsley.

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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Parmesan cheese + cheesetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,041 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Lemon + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,816 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Parmesan cheese
Provides sharp savory flavor and helps the mixture thicken and bind when heated.
Lemon cheese
Adds soft, rich body and a mild tangy sweetness to the cheese mixture.
All-purpose flour
Thickens the cheese mixture so it holds its shape for frying.
Cream or milk
Adds moisture and creaminess, loosening the cheese into a smooth, shapeable mixture.
Egg yolks
Enrich and bind the mixture, adding richness and helping it hold together.

The step that matters

Cook the mixture until it thickens, then cool it slightly before adding the egg yolks. Stirring constantly over medium heat prevents the cheese and flour from scorching or lumping. Cooling slightly before adding yolks keeps the eggs from curdling and scrambling in the hot mixture.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parmesan cheese, cheese, flour, cream, pepper, mustard, egg):

  1. Avocadofits about as well
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Plumfits about as well
  4. Figfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against parmesan cheese, cheese, flour, cream, pepper, mustard, 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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