Why it works: Flour and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Indian Fritters
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Put the flour in a bowl and pour in enough boiling water to make a stiff paste, stirring well to avoid lumps.
Let the mixture cool slightly, then add the egg yolks and egg whites without beating them first.
Stir and beat the mixture until well combined.
Fry and serve
Heat the lard or clarified dripping until boiling.
Drop a dessert spoonful of batter into the hot fat and fry until light brown, about 5 to 8 minutes.
Serve on a dish with a spoonful of jam or marmalade between each fritter.
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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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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 stiff paste that gives the fritters their body and structure.
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and help bind the batter while enriching its texture.
- Egg whites
- Add lightness and help the fritters puff and set as they cook.
- Hot lard or clarified dripping
- Conducts heat to fry the batter, browning the outside and crisping the surface.
The step that matters
Drop the batter into fat that is boiling hot. Batter dropped into hot fat sets and browns quickly on the outside, forming a crisp crust. If the fat is not hot enough, the fritters absorb more fat and turn greasy and heavy.
“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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