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Oatmeal Fritters

A fried batter of oatmeal, cracker crumbs, eggs, and salt, optionally with fruit.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and apple are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,706 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Oatmeal Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, combine cold oatmeal, cracker crumbs, eggs, and salt, and mix until well combined.

Fry

  1. Heat butter or drippings in a skillet over medium-high heat.

  2. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into the hot skillet, shaping them into patties.

  3. Fry until golden brown on both sides.

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 + appletop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Egg + appletop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,461 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold oatmeal
Forms the bulk of the fritters and gives them a soft, hearty body.
Cracker crumbs
Absorb moisture and help the patties hold their shape while frying.
Eggs
Bind the mixture together so the fritters hold their shape.
Butter or drippings
Conducts heat to the patties and browns their surfaces, adding flavor.

The step that matters

Fry until golden brown on both sides. The patties must be firm enough to flip without breaking. Frying in a hot, not smoking, pan browns the surface through the Maillard reaction while the centre sets, so turning too early can make them fall apart.

Swap the apple

The recipe marks apple as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter):

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter. 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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