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Potato Fritters

A fried batter of mashed potatoes, egg, baking powder, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,355 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Potato Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Beat the mashed potatoes until creamy.

  2. Beat the egg until light.

  3. Combine the potatoes and egg, then add baking powder.

  4. Gradually mix in flour until you achieve a stiff batter.

Fry

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

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. Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Potato + eggtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,978 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

Egg and flour 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

Mashed potatoes
Provide the bulk and moisture that give the fritters a soft, tender interior.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets in the hot fat.
Baking powder
Releases gas that lifts the batter so the fritters puff and stay light.
Flour
Thickens the mixture into a stiff batter that holds its shape when dropped into fat.
Lard
Conducts heat for frying and encourages browning on the outside of the fritters.

The step that matters

Frying in hot lard. If the lard is not hot enough, the batter absorbs fat and becomes greasy instead of crisping. Too hot and the outside browns before the centre cooks through. Steady heat gives a golden crust and a fully cooked interior.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, flour. 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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