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Peanut Fruit

A fried ball made from ground peanuts, celery, raisins or figs, seasoned with marjoram, oil, salt, bread crumbs, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Peanut Fruit

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the peanut mixture

  1. Boil the ground peanuts in milk for 10 minutes.

  2. Add chopped celery, raisins or figs, marjoram, oil, salt, bread crumbs, and beaten eggs; mix thoroughly.

  3. Shape the mixture into small balls.

Batter and fry

  1. For the batter, mix flour, 1 egg, a pinch of salt, and 1 cup of milk until smooth.

  2. Dip the peanut balls into the batter.

  3. Fry in hot oil until golden brown.

Serve

  1. Serve with or without dressing; mashed or Lyonnaise potatoes pair well.

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. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Celery + marjoramtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together615 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Marjoram + flourtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,265 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Peanut + celerytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together148 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

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

What each ingredient does

Ground raw peanuts
Form the bulk of the balls and give them a rich, nutty flavour.
Eggs
Bind the mixture so the balls hold their shape, and set on heating.
Milk
Softens the ground peanuts and keeps the mixture moist inside.
Flour
Thickens the batter so it coats the balls and browns when fried.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and add body so the mixture holds together.

The step that matters

Fry in hot oil until golden brown. If the oil is not hot enough, the batter absorbs oil and becomes greasy, while the coating can burn before the centre is heated through. Steady heat gives an even golden crust.

Swap the peanut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, celery, raisin, marjoram, bread, egg, flour):

  1. Chestnutfits better
  2. Almondfits better
  3. Walnutfits better
  4. Peanutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, celery, raisin, marjoram, bread, egg, flour. 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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