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Onion Fritters

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 the batter

  1. Slice the onion and pull it apart.

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

  3. Gradually add the flour and salt, mixing thoroughly.

  4. Fold in the onion pieces.

Fry and drain

  1. Fry the mixture in boiling lard until golden brown.

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

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

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 it set and hold together while frying.
Flour
Thickens the batter and gives the fritters their body and structure.
Milk
Adds moisture and loosens the batter so it coats the onion.
Onion (in the method)
Provides the main flavor and texture inside each fritter.

The step that matters

Frying in boiling lard until golden brown. If the lard is not hot enough, the batter absorbs fat and turns greasy and pale instead of crisping. Frying until golden brown means the surface has set and browned properly.

“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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