Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Kremslekh
Ingredients
Directions
Make the paste
In a bowl, combine Mazza flour, egg, salt, sugar, ground almonds, raisins, and cinnamon.
Add oil or beef dripping and just enough water to form a stiff paste. Mix the ingredients thoroughly.
Fry and drain
In a large enameled saucepan, heat oil or animal fat until boiling, but do not let it burn.
Shape the paste into small pieces and drop them into the boiling fat.
Turn the pieces continually until they are well browned.
Remove and drain on a strainer.
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.
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Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,514 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,390 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Almond + raisintop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,781 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
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Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,673 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Mazza flour
- Forms the main body of the paste, giving the pieces their structure when fried.
- Egg
- Binds the paste together and adds richness and structure to the dough.
- Oil or beef dripping
- Carries the heat for frying and gives the pieces their browned, crisp surface.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown during frying.
The step that matters
Keeping the fat below burning while frying. Fat that is too hot will scorch the outside of the pieces before the inside cooks and will taste bitter. Keeping it at a steady boil that is not smoking lets the pieces brown evenly and cook through.
“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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