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Onion Fritters

A fried batter of onions, egg whites, milk, flour, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Onion Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the onion across and pull apart the slices.

  2. In a bowl, combine the egg whites and milk.

  3. Slowly mix in the flour and a little salt until smooth.

  4. Thoroughly mix in the onion slices.

Fry and drain

  1. Heat lard in a pan until boiling.

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

  3. Remove and drain on brown paper.

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. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 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. Flour + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Milk + oniontop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Bind the batter and help the fritters set with a light, airy structure when fried.
Flour
Thickens the batter so the onion pieces are held together in each fritter.
Milk
Adds moisture to the batter, loosening it for a smooth, coatable consistency.
Onion
Provides the main flavor and, as it cooks, sweetness and texture inside each fritter.

The step that matters

Frying in hot lard. The lard must be fully boiling before the batter goes in. Hot fat sets the outside quickly, so the fritters brown without absorbing excess grease and stay crisp rather than soggy.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, 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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