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Frying Batter for Vegetables

A light batter made from flour, butter, water, salt, and egg whites for frying vegetables.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Frying Batter for Vegetables

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In an earthen bowl, make a hollow in the center of the flour.

  2. Add melted butter and enough water to create a light batter.

  3. Mix well until smooth, ensuring no lumps remain, and add a little salt.

  4. Let the batter rest for one hour before using.

Finish and use

  1. When ready, beat the egg whites until stiff and gently fold them into the batter.

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 + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Flour
Forms the structure that holds the batter together and coats the food when fried.
Melted butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the fried coating tenderness and flavor.
Egg whites
Beaten until stiff, they add air and lightness to the batter for a crisp, airy coating.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Stiffly beaten whites trap air that lightens the batter. Stirring them in vigorously knocks that air out, so the coating fries up heavier. Fold gently, just until combined.

“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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