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Dessert

Bell Fritters

A sweet fried batter made with butter, water, flour, eggs, and served with butter and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Bell Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Melt the butter in the water over medium heat.

  2. Gradually pour the melted butter mixture over the sifted flour, stirring until smooth.

  3. Let the mixture cool.

  4. Once cool, beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

  5. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then fold them into the batter.

Fry and serve

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the batter into hot oil and fry until golden brown.

  2. Serve warm with butter and sugar.

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, 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, as whipped whites, add lift and a light, airy texture.
Flour
Provides the starch and structure that hold the fritters together.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness to the batter.
Water
Provides moisture so the batter cooks into a tender interior with steam.

The step that matters

Frying in hot oil. If the oil is not hot enough, the batter absorbs oil and turns greasy instead of crisping and browning quickly. Keep the oil hot throughout frying.

“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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