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Squash Fritters

A fried batter of grated summer squash, onion, and spices served hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Squash Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Grate the summer squash and onion using a food processor or box grater.

  2. In a bowl, mix the grated squash, onion, salt, flour, baking powder, eggs, and cracker crumbs until well combined.

Fry

  1. Heat oil in a pan over medium-high heat.

  2. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into the hot oil and fry until golden brown on both sides.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Onion + eggtop 34% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together23,333 recipes

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

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

Eggs
Bind the mixture together and help the fritters hold their shape while frying.
Flour
Absorbs moisture from the grated vegetables and gives the batter body.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter to lighten the fritters' texture.
Cracker crumbs
Add bulk and absorb excess liquid from the squash and onion.
Summer squash
Provides moisture and the main vegetable body of the fritters.

The step that matters

Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into the hot oil and fry until golden brown on both sides.. Grated squash releases a lot of water, so the batter can turn soggy and spread if the oil is not hot enough. Hot oil sets the outside quickly, and browning on both sides cooks the centre through.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, 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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