Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Sweet Corn Fritters
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a bowl, combine the wheatmeal, milk, and beaten eggs to make a batter.
Add the sweet corn, salt, pepper, and nutmeg to the batter and mix well.
Fry and serve
Heat oil or butter in a frying pan until hot.
Drop spoonfuls of the batter into the hot oil and fry until golden brown.
Serve with slices of lemon or tomato sauce.
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 + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together13,015 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Corn + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Corn + nutmegtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together563 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,324 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and help set the fritters as they cook.
- Allinson fine wheatmeal
- Provides the flour structure that holds the batter together.
- Milk
- Thins the batter to a pourable consistency and adds moisture.
- Sweet corn
- Adds sweetness and texture throughout the fritters.
The step that matters
Drop spoonfuls of the batter into the hot oil and fry until golden brown. The oil must be hot before the batter goes in. Hot fat sets the outside quickly and gives browning, while cold oil lets the batter soak up grease and turn heavy and pale.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (corn, egg, milk, pepper, butter):
- Nutmegthe original
- Cinnamonfits about as well
- Parsleyfits about as well
- Tarragonfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against corn, egg, milk, pepper, butter. 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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