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Dessert

Fritters

A batter of flour, milk, egg, and bananas fried until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Fritters

Why it works: Milk and banana are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,470 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Sift the flour and salt together twice.

  2. In a bowl, beat the egg yolk and mix in the milk gradually.

  3. Stir the milk mixture into the flour and salt.

  4. Add the olive oil and cover the batter; let it sit for several hours.

  5. When ready, fold in the beaten egg white.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat deep fat in a frying pan until hot, testing with a cube of bread.

  2. Drop even spoonfuls of batter into the hot fat.

  3. Fry until golden brown, then remove with a perforated spoon and drain in a hot colander.

  4. Serve immediately.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Milk + bananatop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,470 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  2. Olive + bananatop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together797 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Olive + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,828 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk 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

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour
Provides the starch and gluten that form the batter's structure as it fries.
Egg yolk
Adds richness and helps bind the batter so it holds together in the fat.
Milk
Hydrates the flour to form a smooth batter and contributes to browning.
Olive oil
Adds fat to the batter, tenderizing the crumb and adding flavour.

The step that matters

Heating the fat until hot. If the fat is not hot enough, the batter absorbs oil and turns greasy instead of crisping. Testing with a cube of bread shows whether the fat is ready before the batter goes in.

Swap the banana

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Bananathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, egg, olive, milk. 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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