Name: Green-corn Fritters
Ingredients: 1 pint grated young and tender green corn; 3 eggs; 2 tablespoons milk or cream; 1 tablespoon melted butter (if using milk); 1 teaspoon salt; Flour (enough to thicken); 1 teaspoon baking powder; Hot lard or a mixture of butter and lard for frying

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 ↓

Green-corn Fritters

Ingredients

1 pint grated young and tender green corn
3 eggs
2 tablespoons milk or cream
1 tablespoon melted butter (if using milk)
1 teaspoon salt
Flour (enough to thicken)
1 teaspoon baking powder
Hot lard or a mixture of butter and lard for frying

Directions

Make the batter

Beat the eggs well in a bowl.
Gradually add the grated corn, milk, and melted butter to the eggs.
Mix in enough flour to hold the mixture together, then add the baking powder.

Fry

Heat the lard in a kettle until hot.
Drop spoonfuls of the corn mixture into the hot fat and fry until light brown.

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,955 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,165 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,345 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

Butter and flour 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

Eggs: Bind the batter and add structure as they set in the hot fat.
Green corn: Supplies the main flavor and moisture, giving the fritters their tender texture.
Flour: Thickens the batter so it holds together when dropped into the fat.
Baking powder: Releases gas in the batter, helping the fritters puff and stay light.

The step that matters

Frying the spoonfuls in hot fat. If the lard is not hot enough, the batter absorbs fat and turns greasy instead of browning quickly. Fat that is hot enough sets the outside fast, so the inside cooks through without soaking up oil.

“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.

Corn Fritters203 recipes

Cream of Corn Soup50 recipes

Green Corn Soup46 recipes

Cornmeal Gruel41 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Green-corn Fritters