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Cheese Fritters

Cheese fritters are slices of cheese coated in batter and fried in fat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Cheese Fritters

Why it works: Cheddar cheese and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,436 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cheese Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cheese

  1. Trim 8 or 9 slices of cheese into pieces 2 inches long and 1 inch wide.

  2. Pour a little clarified butter over the cheese pieces and sprinkle with cayenne pepper.

  3. Let the cheese sit for 1 hour, turning once and seasoning again.

Batter and fry

  1. Prepare the frying batter as directed and season the batter with cayenne pepper.

  2. Dip the cheese pieces in the batter.

  3. Fry the coated cheese pieces in deep fat until well cooked.

  4. Serve quickly.

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. Cheddar cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,436 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

  3. Cheddar cheese + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,016 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cheshire or cheddar cheese
Forms the molten, savory filling that melts inside the crisp coating.
Clarified butter
Adds richness and moisture to the cheese and helps the seasoning cling.
Frying batter
Forms a crisp golden coating that shields the cheese while it fries.

The step that matters

Frying the coated cheese. The fat must be hot enough to crisp the batter quickly. If the oil is too cool, the batter absorbs grease and turns soggy before the cheese is cooked through, and too-hot fat can scorch the coating before the cheese heats.

“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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