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Tomato Fritters

Tomato fritters are small tomatoes coated in a flour batter and fried until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Tomato Fritters

Why it works: Tomato and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,398 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Tomato Fritters

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Dip tomatoes in boiling water and remove the skin.

  2. Prepare batter by mixing flour, salad oil, warm water, and whipped egg whites.

  3. Dip the skinned tomatoes in the batter.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry in hot oil until golden brown.

  2. Garnish with parsley and serve hot.

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. Tomato + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,398 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Tomato + flourtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,065 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, 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

Small tomatoes
Provide the main filling, softened slightly by the brief dip in boiling water.
Flour
Forms the body of the batter that coats and holds the tomatoes.
Whites of 2 eggs
Whipped to add air and lightness, helping the batter puff and stay crisp.
Salad oil
Adds richness and tenderness to the batter.

The step that matters

Frying in hot oil until golden brown. If the oil is not hot enough, the batter absorbs oil and turns greasy instead of crisp. Too hot, and the outside browns before the coating sets, so keep the oil steadily hot.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Arrowrootfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, egg, parsley. 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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