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Dessert

Cheese Fritters, No. 2

Cheese fritters made by mixing cheese, butter, mustard, sherry, mace, tarragon vinegar, anchovy essence, forming balls, dipping in batter, frying.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 901 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓

Cheese Fritters, No. 2

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the mixture

  1. Pound all ingredients together until well combined.

  2. Roll the mixture into small balls.

Fry and serve

  1. Dip the balls in frying batter.

  2. Fry in hot fat at 400°F (200°C) for two minutes.

  3. Drain on paper and serve very hot.

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. Mustard + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together901 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  2. Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,547 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Sherry + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together660 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

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

What each ingredient does

Cheddar cheese
Provides the main flavour and the bulk that holds the fritters together.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the mixture bind and feel smooth.
Mustard
Adds sharp flavour that balances the richness of the cheese and butter.
Anchovy essence
Adds a savoury, salty depth that sharpens the cheese flavour.

The step that matters

Frying the balls in hot fat. If the fat is not hot enough, the batter absorbs oil and becomes greasy instead of crisp. Frying at the stated temperature sets the batter quickly and keeps the cheese inside from leaking out.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cheddar cheese, butter, mustard, sherry, tarragon, vinegar, anchovy):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cheddar cheese, butter, mustard, sherry, tarragon, vinegar, anchovy. 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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