Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Hominy Fritters
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Mix the cold boiled hominy and milk in a bowl.
Add the flour, egg, baking powder, and salt; mix well.
Fry
Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into boiling lard.
Fry until golden brown and cooked through.
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.
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Hominy
- Provides the bulk and tender, starchy body of the fritter.
- Flour
- Builds the batter's structure so the fritters hold their shape while frying.
- Egg
- Binds the mixture and adds richness and structure as it sets.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during frying, helping the fritters puff and stay light.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and loosens the batter to a droppable consistency.
The step that matters
Drop spoonfuls into boiling lard. The fat must be hot enough to set the outside quickly. If it is too cool, the batter absorbs grease and turns heavy and oily instead of crisp and golden.
“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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