Name: Fritter Batter for Oysters or Fruit
Ingredients: 2 egg yolks; ½ cup milk; 1 tablespoon olive oil; ¼ teaspoon salt; 1 cup flour (or enough to make almost a drop batter); 2 egg whites (beaten very stiff); 1 teaspoon sugar (if using for fruit); 1 tablespoon lemon juice (if using for clams, tripe, or meat)

Why it works: Olive and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,922 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Fritter Batter for Oysters or Fruit

Ingredients

2 egg yolks
½ cup milk
1 tablespoon olive oil
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup flour (or enough to make almost a drop batter)
2 egg whites (beaten very stiff)
1 teaspoon sugar (if using for fruit)
1 tablespoon lemon juice (if using for clams, tripe, or meat)

Directions

Beat the yolks of 2 eggs well.
Add ½ cup milk, 1 tablespoon olive oil, ¼ teaspoon salt, and 1 cup flour to the yolks.
Mix until it forms almost a drop batter.
When ready to use, fold in the beaten egg whites.
If making for fruit, add 1 teaspoon sugar to the batter.
If making for clams, tripe, or meat, add 1 tablespoon lemon juice.

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.

Olive + lemontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,922 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,053 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk + olivetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,828 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, milk, olive, flour, sugar):

Vanillafits better
Raisinfits better
Figfits about as well
Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, olive, flour, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Lemon Sauce236 recipes

Tomato Soup526 recipes

Brown Bread461 recipes

Mutton Broth292 recipes

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Fritter Batter for Oysters or Fruit